


The Lodge: Starting Over

by jordahparrish



Category: The Lodge (UK TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/F, F/M, M/M, Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-01-22 01:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 62,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12469980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jordahparrish/pseuds/jordahparrish
Summary: THIS IS A REWRITE OF THE LODGE IMAGINED AS A TEEN DRAMA RATHER THAN A DISNEY SHOW!Eighteen years old, Skye Hart moves out of the city and into her family’s lodge - once there, she ends up building new relationships, breaking others, all whilst running the North Star Lodge. With a group of eighteen year olds, there’s bound to be drama and complications.





	1. The New Girl (S1/E1/P1)

**Author's Note:**

> THE CHARACTERS IN THIS FIC HAVE BEEN AGED UP TO EIGHTEEN!  
> Storylines in this fic will involve sex, alcohol, drugs, and mentions of suicide.

Skye looked out of the window at the country side as they drove down the country road, she leaned back against her seat and looked over to her father, “are we running away to avoid the memory of mum?”

“We’re not running away,” Ed responded with a brief laugh, “in fact, I think we’re actually… Keeping the memory alive.”

“Oh?”

“Going back to the North Star, keeping your mother’s dream alive. Keeping her alive. “

Skye offered a sweet smile to her father, “I miss her.”

“Of course you do, I’d be more concerned if you didn’t.”

Skye closed her eyes and recalled the moment she found her mother, and the heartbreak that came with it – no seventeen year old girl should have seen their mother like that. She opened her eyes again, not wanting to remain in that memory for too long. She gripped onto her seatbelt and hoped she could forget the image. Her phone began to ring and she answered it on loud speaker, seeing as it was Josh.

“Are you there yet? Have you spotted any ‘Ten Out Of Ten Would Bang’ boys yet?”

“Christ, Josh. No, I’m not there yet! And you know I’ll tell you if there’s any Ten Out Of Tens!”

“Skye!”

“Oh, and you’re on loudspeaker, say hi.”

“Hi Ed!”

“Hello Josh,” Ed laughed, “I’d appreciate if you two saved the ‘would bang’ talk when I’m not in earshot!”

“Sorry dad,” Skye grinned to him, “but I’m eighteen, I’m not going to be talking about fairytale romances anymore!”

“Oh, I wish you were.”

Skye snorted out a laugh, “and Josh, any updates of the lovely city?”

“You’re insane if you think I’ve left my bedroom already,” Josh scoffed, “oh – I did get a reply from Simon! He rejected me,” Josh then hummed, “it’s cool – he was only a five anyway.”

“A five?” Ed asked curiously.

“Five out of ten,” Skye smiled, “you know, the whole ‘would bang’ thing?”

“Agh!” Ed yelped, throwing up one hand in between them, “okay, cool! Come on – I still see you two as kids.”

“I hope the guys I’ve been with don’t see me as a kid,” Josh whispered – but it was still clearly audible to both Skye and Ed. 

“Josh!” 

Skye began to laugh loudly at her father’s reaction, then Josh spoke again, “oh come on Ed, you know that neither me or your daughter are innocent anymore.”

Ed raised an eyebrow to Skye, “I didn’t know that about Skye, actually,” Ed cleared his throat, “I thought you were going to be honest with me about this sort of stuff?”

“Well, to be honest, dad, I don’t think there was ever a point where I felt the need to go ‘by the way, I gave Harry Thompson he-“

Ed loudly began singing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to block out the end of Skye’s sentence, Skye smiled at her father’s action and then began to sing along with him. They continued throughout the song – Josh was laughing on the other end of the phone call and he even joined in with a few lines. The fun came to an end when somebody on a mountain bike jumped out from the side of the road – landing in front of the car. Luckily Ed managed to stop the car before hitting the rider. Skye became furious with the recklessness.

“I’ll call you back later Josh,” she hung up before Josh could say goodbye, unbuckled her seatbelt and jumped out of the car, storming over to the boy, “are you fucking insane? You could have killed not only yourself, but also my dad and I!”

“I’m so sorry,” the boy let out a weak laugh as he pulled off his helmet, “granted, that was a stupid thing to be doing – my friends do say I have a death wish.”

Skye looked the boy up and down, trying to hide the impressed smile that was creeping onto her face, “it’d be a shame,” she crossed her arms, “if you were to die…”

The boy seemed flattered by the somewhat compliment, “I’m Sean.”

Ed came out of the car grumbling, he looked up to Sean, “well, Sean, the car won’t start now… So thanks for that!”

“Oh,” Sean pressed his lips together, “sorry?”

“Can’t we just walk to the lodge?” Skye asked quickly, “it’s not that far, is it?”

“The lodge?” Sean moved closer to the family, “the North Star?” Skye nodded, “it’s not far at all!”

“Well, I’m going to have to stay with the car,” Ed sighed, he looked at Skye and shrugged, “I suppose you can always head off, if Sean’s willing to help you along.”

“I’m willing,” Sean showed off a grin. 

“But none of that Ten out of Ten business,” Ed glared at his daughter, “please.”

“Wow dad, I gave head once – I’m not going to jump on boys on my first day!”

Sean stood wide eyed as the girl spoke to her father, Skye turned back to him and then laughed. The boy joined in the laughter momentarily, “hop on.”

Skye and Ed both stood still in silence, staring at the boy.

“I meant on the bike!” Sean yelped, realising that he had chosen the wrong moment to make the offer.

“Oh, right,” Skye smiled, she turned to her father, “I mean, if he did offer the other option – I wouldn’t say no.”

“Just go, Skye!”

“I love you, I’ll meet you at the lodge.”

“See you later darling.”

* * * * *

Skye and Sean arrived at the lodge shortly after leaving the car, Skye had held onto Sean’s waist the whole way – and there was a possible moment were she purposely held onto him tighter, and through his thing shirt she could feel that the ab situation was definitely a good one.

“So, are your parents separated?” Sean asked suddenly at one point of the ride, “just because, I didn’t see your mum in the car.”

“My mum died,” Skye commented, slightly quieter than she had been before, “she’s been gone for almost a year now, but I’ve never forgotten how I found her.”

Sean came to a stop and looked over his shoulder to the girl, “you… found her?”

Skye nodded, she did her best to smile, “she was depressed for quite a while, and my dad and I had always done her best to support her. Unfortunately, all the love in the world couldn’t help her. She took her own life,” Skye’s smile faltered but she held her head high, “it was heartbreaking, but… I’m kind of… Glad she’s not suffering through the depression anymore. My dad and I still love her just as much as we did when she was alive, it’s only different now because she’s not here.”

Sean pressed his lips together, “I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay,” she looked into his eyes, “it’s been long enough now.”

“You’re really brave, still being able to hold yourself together after… Finding her.”

Sean smiled to the girl, and she smiled back – it was a great moment. She noticed how his eyes seemed to dart down to look at her lips every now and then, that only really meant one thing, didn’t it? The Ten out of Ten boy was thinking of kissing her. She licked her lips quickly, and noticed how the boy did his best not to get too distracted in the moment.

“Uh, right,” he turned around, “to the North Star lodge, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The rest of the ride was over quickly, Sean let Skye jump off of the bike once they got to the gate, he spotted a man leaving the building and coming towards them, “oh, that’ll be Patrick – he owns the place, I don’t think he’s too fond of me. I’ve heard some worrying rumours about him to be honest…”

Skye slapped a hand against Sean’s chest, “I can tell you, any worrying rumours about my granddad are most likely untrue,” she grinned and turned to go greet her grandad, “hello again Grandad!

“Oh Skye,” Patrick laughed as he welcomed his granddaughter into a hug, “it’s been a while, hm?”

“I haven’t seen you since the funeral,” she tightened the hug, “this place…”

“Look like you remember?”

“Yes!” Skye giggled and looked around, “I met Sean, oh and uh… The car kind of broke down earlier, on the dirt road?”

“Oh, I’ll send someone out, I’ve got a member of staff who’s rather handy with mechanics.”

Skye noticed Sean chuckle, “sorry,” he spoke up from the distance, “just… I’m now thinking of Ben giving mechanics handjobs.”

“Gross,” a girl with braided black hair grumbled as she walked into view, stopping by Sean.

“I’ll give him a call for you,” Sean nodded to Patrick, and the old man quickly smiled back to him. 

“You know what I mean,” Patrick sighed to Skye, “why don’t you come inside?”

“Sure,” Skye nodded to her grandad, she looked back to Sean and the unnamed girl. She followed Patrick inside and looked around in wonder, “woah,” she grinned as she saw the interior, “this is…”

“Exactly how you remember it?”

“Exactly!”

A tall boy walked past the pair, looking at Skye momentarily, Skye would have questioned him but she decided to stay quiet. He wore a pair of bright headphones around his neck.

“That would be Noah, our DJ,” Patrick commented, “he’s a sweet kid.”

“Cool,” Skye began to play with her hair, “wait, DJ? Grandad, I don’t really think this is the kind of place to be dropping bass,” she laughed, “I mean… All of your residents are… Well, old.”

“Alright, then… Sound Engineer.”

“That’s much better suited.”

* * * * *  
“Who’s the blonde?” Noah questioned as he reached Kaylee and Sean.

“Uh, her name is Skye,” Sean smiled, “she’s not too bad to look at,” he raised his eyebrows and cheekily stuck his tongue out slightly. 

Kaylee held up the rake she was using and swung it at Sean, “you have a girlfriend, Sean!” 

“I know,” Sean snorted out a laugh, “you know I wouldn’t want to hurt Danielle,” he smiled to Kaylee quickly, “but come on, Kayls, you can’t deny that Skye is pretty damn attractive.”

“I mean, yeah she is, but you still have a girlfriend!”

“Speaking of,” Noah leaned towards the two, “I heard Danielle’s mum blackmailed some reality show into recording her?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sean laughed, “Olivia’s trying to distract Danielle, basically like ‘oh have your own show, don’t focus on the fact that I’m not going to be around’. It’s actually such a dick move.”

“Great parenting there,” Kaylee scoffed, “like top class,” she crossed her arms.

“Oh my God,” Sean began to chuckle, “you guys should have heard the conversation she was having with her dad – new girl is not ashamed of her sex life.”

Noah began waving the hose around, “less ashamed than you and Danielle?”

“I’d never tell my dad about giving head.”

“She did that?” Noah laughed, absentmindedly pointing the house at Kaylee.

“Noah!” Kaylee screamed as she defended herself from the water, “you got me wet!”

Sean and Noah both chuckled, Sean raised his eyebrows to her, “not the first time, huh?”

“Sean!” Kaylee hissed at the boy, “that’s vile.”

Sean began laughing in a high pitched giggle, “oh you love it,” he taunted her. 

“Sean!” Another voice called, and Sean looked over his shoulder to see his dad pull up in his car.

He looked back to Kaylee and Noah who both gave him a worried look. He offered a brief uneasy smile and then walked over to his dad. His mood had changed entirely by the time he reached the side of his dad’s car, “dad, what are you doing here?”

“I think I should be asking you that!” Gil snapped back at his son, “I told you to stop wasting your time around these people, Sean! They’re not worth our time, you’d be much better off on the job with me!”

“They’re my friends,” Sean spat back.

“They’re not your friends, you know they’re only using you – Sean. Everybody benefits from having a rich friend.”

“I’m not just their ‘rich friend’. They like me for me.”

Gil sneered a harsh laugh, “keep telling yourself that.”

“Why are you here?” He asked the question again, glaring at his father.

“Had you been working with me, you’d know,” Gil replied in a cold tone, he then drove off towards the parking area. Sean looked back to Kaylee and Noah, both still giving him concern.

“It’s fine,” he grumbled as he moved back towards his friends.

“He’s here to seal the deal, isn’t he?” Noah asked nervously, his mood dropping.

“I think so.”


	2. Ten Out Of Ten (S1/E1/P2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye meets one of the workers at the lodge, but he's less than pleased to interact with her.

“I’ve found one Ten out of Ten already,” Skye grinned as she spoke down the phone to Josh, “and he’s Scottish, but like… Super attractive, ridiculously hot Scottish.”

“Oh, get in there Skye!”

“I’m welcome to him getting in there,” Skye laughed, she looked out of the window, her dad’s car was now outside and another boy was helping to bring in the luggage, “okay, another Ten out of Ten is heading my way,” she sang playfully, “more options, less disappointment, right?”

“Right!”

“I think I’ll introduce myself, I’ll talk to you later.”

“See you later,” Josh responded before the phone call ended.

Skye put her phone into her pocket and watched as the boy entered the reception, “I’ll take that,” she grinned as she grabbed her own suitcase from him, the boy turned suddenly and glared at her, “it’s my suitcase,” she reasoned, looking up to his eyes. Blue again, just like Sean’s.

“Great,” the boy rolled his eyes, “I guess I’ll go back to the car and get another few bags for you to snatch.”

“It’s not snatching if it’s my own things.”

“It’s snatching if you pull it out of someone’s hands,” the boy retorted.

Skye raised her eyebrows as the boy stormed out of the building again, she let out a scoff, and watched him out of the door. He seemed like an angry guy, sure, but that didn’t make her find him any less attractive. Sean rushed over to the door, offering a smile to the girl.

“I’m sorry about him,” Sean smiled to her, “kind of… Had a bad break up recently.”

“Oh, so he’s single?”

Sean raised his eyebrows, “uh… Yeah, but when I say bad break up… I mean a very bad break up.”

“Oh?”

“Shouting, swearing, crying, stuff like that.”

“Crying? Him, or his ex?”

“Both.”

Skye tilted her head, “what happened?”

“One small argument ended up in something much worse, brought out all the flaws to their relationship. It went on for days, I was with them once and you could feel the tension,” he leaned back against the door, “he’s got some problems with his anger, and Ana was quite temperamental as well,” a small smile appeared on his face, “and you knew it was bad when Ana started screaming at him in Norwegian. Weirdly enough,” he looked Skye up and down before continuing to talk, “that one time I was with them, I had to leave… Because they actually started getting it on,” he raised his eyebrows, “I think my lovely Benjamin enjoys a bit of angry sex.”

“Oh,” Skye snorted out a laugh, “so are you suggesting I make him angry, or-?”

“Definitely not,” Sean shook his head, “I have to put up with him.”

Skye gave him a suggestive look, “oh, and have you ever enjoyed angry sex with him?”

“Funny,” Sean laughed, “no, not entirely. Look, Ben has two modes – Prince Charming Ben, and Evil Queen Ben – actually worse than that!”

“Ouch,” Skye pulled a face, the boy in question was coming back towards the building, “how does someone look so hot when they’re angry?”

Sean glanced over to Ben, and then quickly back to Skye, “just don’t cross him too much, I don’t want you to find out about the bad side before the good one,” he winked, “also…” He cocked his head slowly, “I’m pretty sure you told your dad you wouldn’t be jumping on guys on the first day.”

Skye hummed, “I did make that promise… And yet I’ve already got two boys on the list,” she faked a gasp, she turned around and found her grandad by the reception desk, “hey,” she spoke – as she did, Ben had arrived by her side and placed two more bags down on the ground, “so, where am I staying?”

“Your mum’s old room,” Patrick smiled to his granddaughter, “it’s already decorated for you, hopefully you like it. Ah, Ben!” He caught the boy before he could leave again.

Ben turned back, rolling his eyes as he turned, “yeah?”

“Can you take Skye to her room? The one we sorted out the other day.”

Ben looked at Skye, scanning her from her to toe, “I guess I’ll have to, won’t I?” 

“Thank you,” Patrick seemed to ignore Ben’s ignorance, and walked outside of the building, most likely to greet Ed.

Ben picked up the two bags he had placed on the floor and began moving instantly, pausing briefly to ask Sean to accompany them. Sean jumped at the chance, opening doors for the pair as they made their way up the stairs.

Skye could hear Ben whispering things to Sean, but she wasn’t entirely sure what he was saying. Sean would speak back in a calming voice, clearly Ben wasn’t happy. Sean’s hand was actually resting on Ben’s back when they walked up the stairs, Skye could see that he clearly cared for the other boy. They got to the bedroom and once all three of them were inside, Ben instantly went to leave again, but Sean turned him back to face Skye.

“Ben, be nice to the new girl.”

Ben rolled his eyes, “fine, here’s your room. I hope you enjoy your stay, no matter how short it is,” he growled the end of his sentence and then stormed out.

“Well, if I’m murdered, we know who it was,” she crossed her arms, watching as the door closed, “this room is lovely,” the topic changed, and she turned around to look at the decorated room, “did you help out at all?”

“Oh God no,” Sean snorted out another laugh, “I don’t work here – if I did, my dad would probably kill me.”

“Oh?”

“He’s not a big fan of this place,” Sean pulled a face and placed with the sleeves to his shirt, “but he’s uh… He’s here now for some reason, some business meeting I guess.”

“Oh, fun,” Skye sarcastically commented, “I uh… I’ve got to call my friend back, I promised him I’d give him regular updates of my move.”

“Friend?” Sean asked in a suggestive tone, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh my God, not like that! He’s incredibly gay, and unfortunately he’s got with more boys than I have, so it’s basically like a challenge to compete with him on that.”

“Well, I’m sure you won’t struggle too much,” Sean seemed to whisper, “alright, I’ll leave you to it,” he winked and turned away from Skye. The girl watched him leave and then waited a moment before picking up her phone and calling Josh.

“Alright, third call lucky!” Were Josh’s first words when he answered, “I’m guessing you’ve got some more information for me?”

“Of course I do!” Skye tutted as she moved over to her bed, “so, firstly, before I even got to the lodge – out pops the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, the Scottish one. Killer blue eyes, the sharpest jawline and a cute smile!”

“Interesting, go on!”

“So he gets me to sit on the back of his bike t-“

“Bike? Motorbike or…?”

“Mountain bike! So, I’m on the seat, holding onto him… And oh Josh, let me tell you – I definitely got a feel of the ab situation whilst I was holding on, and it’s looking good.”

“Damn, Skye,” Josh laughed loudly, “you really are quite thirsty, huh?”

“A little bit… Anyway, so we got here… And lo and behold there is another ten out of ten!”

“The one you hung up on me for?”

“Yeah, so he was incredibly miserable, really angry… He recently broke up with his girlfriend – Sean, the Scottish ten, was telling me how when they were arguing before the break up they usually ended up having sex. So he’s single, and sexually active.”

“And…”

“And I’d totally be up for changing that first one, if he weren’t such a cu-“

Skye went silent and turned around when she heard something hit the floor, Ben somewhat glared at her and pointed to a bag he had dropped for her, “if I weren’t such a –?” He challenged her to continue her sentence, “go on,” he crossed his arms, “I’d much prefer for you to say it to my face rather than over the phone to your little friend.”

“I think you know what I was going to say,” Skye placed the phone on the bed, leaving the call on whilst she walked over to Ben, “and I think you know that you are one.”

Ben rolled his eyes, “oh yeah, sure, I am.”

“Glad to know you can admit it!”

“Mm,” Ben looked around the room, “so, anyway, neither you or Sean should be talking about my sex life, it’s just not needed,” he paused and began to walk away, before he got to the door, he turned back, “but it’s nice to know you want to fuck me.”

Skye waited for the door to close again and rushed back to the phone, “see what I mean by his attitude?”

“Skye, by his voice alone, I approve of this guy – actually, let me have him.”

“No way! You’ve had so much luck in the city.”

“True, true. Plus, we don’t even know if he’d be into guys.”

“I think he is,” Skye sat down on the bed, “when I was talking to Sean earlier I joked about him and Ben having sex and Sean answered ‘not entirely’.”

“Oh my God, Skye your two ten out of tens have one hundred percent fooled around with each other! You are in the kind of place we all deserve, I need to see pictures! To fully approve.”

“I’ll have to find them on facebook,” Skye hummed, she searched in one of her bags for her iPad and then quickly began to look through the social media app, “alright, Sean Matthews,” she spoke whilst she searched for the boy.

“I’m searching over here as well,” Josh sang playfully, “which Sean Matthews is it?”

“Um… Oh! His profile picture is a black and white picture, it’s a picture of him and Ben.”

“Oh, is one of them laughing in it?”

“Yes! That one would be Sean.”

“Alright, check! I am on his profile! Now Skye, nothing says more about a man than his Facebook profile pictures,” Josh spoke with a serious tone.

“He had one of him with a puppy?” Skye asked in a shocked and offended tone, “why didn’t he keep that one?”

“Skye, I can honestly say… I’m impressed – the boy has a jawline for days. I want to bite it.”

“You want to bite his jaw?”

“Yes, just to make it less perfect! It’s frustrating, it’s so straight, straighter than you!”

“Not that hard to compete with, Josh.”

“Straighter than your dad.”

Skye hummed in agreement, “no, you’re right, now I want to bite his jaw too.”

“Your dad’s?”

“Josh! No! Obviously, I meant Sean’s!”

Josh was struggling to breathe through his laughter, “I’m going to check out this Ben guy now, oh Ben Evans – such a… Simple name.”

“Nothing on Skye Hart – huh?”

“Absolutely nothing!”

Skye also clicked onto Ben’s profile, his profile picture was one where it looked as though he was on a date.

“He suits stripes,” Josh commented, clearly looking at the same picture.

Skye looked at the comments of the photo curiously.

 **Ana Larsen**   
_photo credit!! :p xxxxx_

**Kaylee Marston**   
_Aw <3_

**Noah Potts**   
_Even I’m attracted to that. Damn, boy!_

**Ben Evans**   
_@Noah Potts you’re welcome to give it a try, anytime ;)_

**Ana Larsen**   
_@Noah Potts it’s not that exciting :P_

**Sean Matthews**   
_@Noah Potts @Ana Larsen, she says that but… When I’m at Ben’s house and she’s over – all I can hear from them two is ‘excitement’._

Skye stopped reading the comments when Josh began calling her name, she clicked away from the picture, “yes?” she responded to him.

“I’m at a loss for words, they’re both so good… I say throw in all you’ve got and do them both. At the same time.”

“Oh God, I long for that to be an option,” Skye laughed, she locked her tablet and dropped it onto her bed, “imagine if my first time was with two boys!”

“I’d be jealous, to be honest.”

“I know you would,” Skye stood up from her bed and began to examine the room, “this room is nice, I mean a bit… Over-girly, but it’s nice.”

“Make it your own,” Josh tutted from the other side of the phone.

Skye let out a brief sigh, “but that’s so much effort, Josh!”

“Either make the effort, or stop complaining,” Josh laughed as he spoke, “so, I should let you go and replace me with new friends,” he spoke dramatically.

“Baby, no,” Skye called into the phone, “you know I could never replace you.”

“Yeah, that’s true. You love me too much.”

“I do.”

“Will you still love me when you’re hooking up with two ten out of tens?”

“Of course! I’ll just have to schedule time for them,” Skye laughed down the phone as she looked in the mirror - examining the clothes she was wearing, “before you go,” she played with her shirt, “do you think I should make a move?”

“Would I still be me if I said no? Of course you should make a move, Skye!”

“Alright, I think I’ll go for the Scottish Ten,” Skye hummed, “he seemed to like me - I mean he basically told me it won’t be hard for me to get guys.”

“Oh, wow, Skye… He totally wants to screw you - I sound sarcastic, but I mean it.”

Skye giggled and began to play with her, “well, I’m going to get dressed for the occasion - I’m sure I’ve got an outfit that can win him around.”

“Alright, well whilst you change into sexy Skye - I’m going to meet a certain someone and change into sexy Josh. Let me know how it goes!”

“Talk to you later,” Skye practically sang down the phone before ending the call. She dropped her phone onto her bed and quickly opened her suitcase, she rummaged through the suitcase and pulled out a black dress she looked up to her reflection in the mirror and gave herself an approving smile. She quickly pulled off the clothes she was wearing and was about to pull the dress on when she heard her door open again.

Before she could shout anything, Ben was in view again, he dropped another bag on the ground and was about to make a comment - but after looking up and seeing the girl stood in her underwear, he quickly silenced and turned away, “you had more bags,” he quickly informed her.

“I know you’ve seen at least one naked girl before,” Skye laughed as she pulled the dress over her head, “there’s no need to look so terrified, my body is great.”

Ben turned back after a moment, now Skye was actually wearing the dress, “yeah, well, it’s not every day I walk into a room to a girl getting changed.”

“You should have knocked,” Skye taunted, walking closer to him.

“I can just, take the bags back outside if you want,” he replied sarcastically, and bent over to pick up the bags.

“No, it’s fine… Thank you.”

Ben raised his eyebrows, “cool, bye.”

“Wait,” Skye rushed before he could leave, “can I ask... Do you think I look good in this?”

Ben glared at her, “just because I’ve seen you in your underwear, doesn’t mean we’re going to be friends.”

“We don’t have to be friends, just tell me if I look good.”

Ben released a scoff of laughter, “well, aren’t you just thirsty for attention,” he rolled his eyes, “but if it means I can leave, then yes - I’d fuck you.”

“Glad we’re at a mutual agreement with that then,” Skye offered a smile to the boy, but he ignored it and left the room.

Skye untied her hair and made her way out of the room, she was certain Sean would still be on the premises somewhere. She wandered around curiously, pausing when she saw the boy by one of the drink machines, he hit the machine and somehow managed to get a drink out - clearly without paying.

“You know,” she began as she approached him, leaning up against the machine and grinning, “I technically own that.”

“Oh, do you now?” Sean tried not to laugh, “in which case… I totally didn’t do that.”

Skye raised her eyebrows in a challenging manner, “I mean… There is always another way you could pay for it,” she had a playful smile as she looked into his eyes - and as the realisation of the message hit Sean, he looked stunned. He went as though he was about to speak.

“There he is,” a voice called, Skye and Sean both turned. Skye saw a girl with long dark hair approaching them, a camera crew following her, “hi babe,” she walked to Sean and the boy quickly placed his arm around her waist.

“Hey,” he grinned to her, “you look… amazing.”

“I know,” the girl shrugged and then made eye contact with Skye, “hi, I’m Danielle - and you are? What? An escort here or something? Sean, I told you this place was seedy.”

“This place belongs to my family,” Skye replied quickly.

“Right, so your Patrick’s granddaughter?” The girl looked at her with wide eyes, “are the rumours true?”

“What is it about these stupid rumours?” Skye glared up at Sean, “you mentioned these ‘rumours’ earlier! What kind of rumours”

Danielle looked up at Sean, expecting her boyfriend to say something but he only hung his head in shame, so Danielle rolled her eyes and looked back to the new girl, “the kind of rumours that mean mothers and fathers aren’t exactly comfortable having their kids here.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Skye practically screamed, “and I bet it’s people like you that continue to spread those stupid preposterous rumours!” 

She stormed away from the couple, and past the camera crew who had flooded into the room, she didn’t need to hear this - the entire idea of those disgusting rumours were absurd and she knew they weren’t true. It was just teenagers spreading bad news about people they think they know.


	3. Join The Club (S1/E1/P3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye confronts Ben at last, feeling fed up of his attitude - and opinions begin to change.

Kaylee finished recording her song, she looked over at Noah who was giving her a supportive smile from the other side of his MacBook. He stopped the recording and then placed his MacBook onto the table before rushing over to her.

“You just topped it, Kayls, that was better than anything else you’ve ever done!”

“Ouch, I thought my S.A.M recording was the best thing.”

“It’s even better than that,” Noah laughed, “don’t get me wrong - I love Something About Me, and that recording was absolute fire, but Believe That will no doubt be your first chart topper! Picture it now, Kaylee Marston top of the UK 40 chart! A live interview on BBC Radio One,” he turned to the microphone and pretended to speak into it, he put on a lower voice, mimicking a radio presenter, “This is Greg James, live on BBC Radio One with your official UK Top 40! You just heard this week’s number one, Believe That by Kaylee Marston, and we have the one and only Kaylee here with us right now!”

Kaylee laughed but played along, “hi Greg!”

“Kaylee, you’re new to the music scene, and already top of the charts, how does that feel?”

“It feels amazing!”

“Good, good, so your song ‘Believe That’, tell us a bit about it? The inspiration, and writing process?”

“Noah, I swear Greg James doesn’t actually ask people those quest-”

“Greg James here with BBC Radio One, waiting for Kaylee Marston to answer the question I asked!” Noah played back, grinning to her.

Kaylee laughed for a short while before speaking, “well, it stemmed from experience at school, people telling me I’d never amount to anything and I’d be nothing forever, but I had a good friend by my side the entire time,” she watched as Noah’s face lit up, “someone who never doubted me. Danielle Cla-”

“Hey!”

“I’m kidding, Noah Potts - always there for me no matter what, we’re unbeatable partners in crime and it’s great having him by my side.”

“Aw, Kayls,” Noah placed his hand over his heart. They both broke out into laughter, and Noah quickly embraced Kaylee into a hug.

“You think I’ll actually have an interview with Greg James some day?”

“I know you will!”

* * * * *

Skye got out of the shower and walked over to her bed, she quickly put her underwear and bra on before she paused to look on her phone for any notifications. She ended up scrolling through her Instagram feed, there was a knock at the door and after a second before she could even say anything it opened. She rushed out to look at who was entering - and of course it was Ben.

“Don’t you knock?”

“I did!” Ben snapped, not looking back to Skye.

“Well don’t you wait?”

Ben scoffed and turned around, this time when he saw Skye, he didn’t look away, “do you just parade around in your underwear all the time when you’re alone?”

“I just got out of the shower actually, to think you could have seen more if you got here sooner.”

Ben rolled his eyes, “I’ll come back later then.”

“Why are you here?”

“To clean your room… Anyway, bye-”

”Wait, you can do it now, I’d hate to mess up your schedule,” she shrugged.

Ben hummed and then pulled the trolley of cleaning supplies into the room, he began to clean an area of the room, Skye simply watched and leaned back against the wall, “you know,” she began to fiddle with the strap of her bra whilst she spoke, “my mum used to basically run this place for my grandad when she was younger.”

“That’s great, I don’t care about what your mum used to do,” Ben hissed under his breath.

“Woah, okay,” Skye crossed her arms, “you might not care, but I do!”

“Shut up,” Ben turned around, “I’m not here to have an idle chat, I’m here to get on with my job.”

“For fuck sake! Since I got here I’ve only tried to be nice to you but you’ve been a total dick in response! What the fuck is your problem?”

“You know what my problem is!”

“Are you really that pissed off about me being my underwear in my own room?”

“What? No!”

“Then what is it? What is your problem?”

Ben dropped his cleaning supplies, “you, just swooping in here and ruining it all for us? I love it here, so do Kaylee and Noah! We don’t want you to take this away from us.”

”What?”

Ben’s expression softened as he looked at the girl, “you… don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Your dad is selling the lodge, and he’s signing the papers today…”

“What?” Skye exclaimed, she grunted and then went to storm out of the room.

”Wait!” Ben called, Skye turned around curiously to face the boy, Ben looked her up and down, “I don’t think the guests will want to see you like that,” he then finally, for the first time, smiled to Skye.

“Right,” Skye quickly laughed and then ran to grab her dressing gown.

“And you didn’t put that on before seeing me,” Ben commented, Skye only gave him a shrug and then ran out of the room as she tied it up.

Skye rushed down the stairs in search for her father, when she got to the reception she could see him outside in the path talking to a guest - she didn’t care, in that moment, she rushed down the path and stepped between her father and the older man.

“What the hell, dad?”

“Oh, I didn’t realise dressing gowns are the fashion now,” Ed joked to her daughter.

“You’re selling the lodge?”

The customer walked off and Ed looked around awkwardly, “ah, Skye-”

“When were you going to tell me? Or were you going to leave me clueless?”

“Skye…”

“Why, dad? You know what this place meant to mum! You told me we were coming here for mum, to keep her alive!”

“I know, but I know if I told you about it, then you wouldn’t have wanted to move.”

“You’re right! I wouldn’t have! I’m not letting you get rid of mum’s dream!”

“We need to, Skye, it will be best for your future-”

“My future? Dad, this place, this is my future! I want to live here, I want to run this place, that’s all I want! I want to continue mum’s dream!”

"You have to understand, I’m doing what’s best for you.”

“Oh really? What’s best for me? You really think you know what’s best for me?” Skye’s attention then turned to the camera crew that were approaching, “oh my God, what the fuck is your problem?” She snapped at the crew, “just fuck off!”

She ran back inside, irritated by both her father and the camera crew - as if it weren’t enough that he was going to sell the lodge, they had that stupid camera crew prepared to record any moment of controversy. She got to her room and sat down against her door once it was shut. Ben had disappeared from her room by now, but she still spoke out loud.

“We’re not selling the lodge,” she hissed under her breath, “we can’t.”

* * * * *

Danielle stood next to Kaylee, “of course I have to introduce to you Kaylee, my closest friend - she’s a wonderful performer, but also kind of a prude, I suppose not all of us can be sexually active.”

“Danielle!” Kaylee yelped.

“Sorry Kayls, but isn’t it true?”

Kaylee rolled her eyes and walked away.

Danielle shrugged to the cameras and looked around, “I know, I’ll go find Sean again, we’re pretty good entertainment for the camera,” she laughed and then ran off.

Whilst the crew followed her, the producer could be heard mumbling under her breath, “I’m getting bored of watching them making out.”

Kaylee stopped by Skye’s side whilst the blonde was being the reception desk, she offered her a smile, “hi… I’m sorry that I’ve kind of been avoiding you. It’s just, I really love it here. I do, it’s made me so much closer to Noah and Ben - even Sean since he’s always here. But I now know you weren’t aware of it, and that’s not really an excuse but-”

“It’s fine,” Skye laughed, grinning to the girl, “I guess by now you know I’m Skye.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “I’m Kaylee, sorry I didn’t even realise that I never introduced myself.”

“That’s totally fine,” Skye looked around the archway into the next room where the camera crew were recording Danielle and Sean, “so those two are… Pretty full on, huh?”

“Sean and Danielle? Full on is an understatement,” Kaylee snorted out a loud laugh, “their relationship is basically sexually driven - without the sex, I’m pretty sure they’d be over.”

“Wow,” Skye pulled a face, “that doesn’t sound healthy.”

“It isn’t,” Kaylee shook her head, “but I’m not going to tell them. Oh! We’re on our lunch break in an hour, I’m heading to the lake with Danielle and the boys, you want to join us?”

“Sure,” Skye smiled, “I can make a new impression to all of you!”

* * * * *

At the lake, the group all sat down in a semi-circle, using the time to have an idle chatter about what was going on - Ben, Kaylee, and Noah mentioned moments that had happened in the lodge whilst they were working. Skye listened, laughing along with them, and every now and then her attention would turn to Sean and Danielle, Danielle was leaning back against Sean and looking up to him, she’d pull him down into a kiss basically every minute and sometimes it seemed like Sean was going to get carried away in the moment.

“Remember when Noah walked in on that old couple,” Ben announced loudly, and he instantly began to laugh.

Noah covered his face in embarrassment, “don’t! I’m still in shock! I swear to God, it was terrifying.”

“Oh, now you have to explain!” Skye thumped Noah’s shoulder, “what actually happened?”

“I knocked on the door, and I heard nothing, so I figure it was cool to go in and clean. Turns out they couldn’t hear me, and I walked in on this gross scene - they were on top of the sheets, so I saw basically everything.”

“Oh no!” Skye squealed, “that’s gross.”

“You’ve seen nothing until you’ve seen a naked old lady bent over the bed with her husband going in from behind.”

“I’ve seen Sean and Danielle in a similar situation,” Ben commented, quickly glancing to the pair.

“Mate,” Sean laughed, “you’ve seen Danielle and I go at it at least ten times.”

“It’s true,” Ben nodded, “it’s just become the norm for me.”

“Remember that house party at Ben’s?” Danielle grinned over to Noah and Kaylee, the pair nodded, “Sean and I stayed in Ben’s room with him, he genuinely told us to have sex on his bed next to him instead of doing it on the floor. And we did.”

Kaylee pulled a face, “why would you tell them to do that?”

“He was feeling lonely after Ana left,” Sean pouted to Ben, “so why not have your best friend fuck his girlfriend right next to you?”

Ben smiled over to Skye, “and suddenly seeing you in your underwear means so much less to me.”

“Oh woah,” Noah looked at the boy, “sorry?”

“I’ve walked in on her twice already whilst she was in her underwear,” Ben then winked to Skye and let out a quick laugh, “I have to say, not entirely disappointing, Skye.”

“Would you rather relive the night of the house party,” Danielle turned to Ben and began the question, “or relive walking in on Skye in her underwear?”

”Depends, does the outcome change?”

“Do you want the outcome of that night to change?” Danielle raised her eyebrows to the boy, “because I’m pretty happy with it.”

Ben pulled a face, and Skye was clueless to what it meant.

“What was the outcome of that night?” She asked curiously.

Sean, Danielle, and Ben all quietly laughed. Sean spoke up as he moved his hands to Danielle’s waist, “oh, one day you’ll find out, but I don’t think right now is the time.”

Noah pulled a face, but then his expression changed, “oh my God, I know what happened!”

Ben awkwardly laughed, “no, you don’t.”

“Yes I do! You told me that you had a th-”

Ben began to sing loudly over Noah’s words, making it impossible for Kaylee or Skye to hear what Noah had to say. He was singing Smashmouth’s song ‘All Star’, less singing and more screeching. Sean began to laugh before singing along with him whilst the others just watched.

Danielle elbowed Sean part way through, she was indicating that his phone was ringing and the boys quickly went quiet.

“Hey, dad,” he spoke through the phone.

“Has he made the deal yet?” Noah asked quickly.

“What deal?” Skye asked.

Danielle played with her hair, “his dad’s going to buy the lodge.”

“What?” Skye glared at Sean who was listening to his dad talk, she jumped up, “no he’s not, I’m going to stop this!”

Ben stood up after her when she began to walk away, he chased after her, “you won’t get there by time if you walk,” he grabbed her arm and turned her around, “I’ve got my bike, let me give you a ride.”

“I’ll resist the urge to make a joke and take you up on that offer,” Skye nodded to him.

“Come on,” Ben held onto her hand and led her over to his bike, she jumped onto the seat once Ben was ready and then gripped onto him as she had done with Sean when she first met him.

“You know,” she called out as Ben began to pedal, “I’m much fonder of this side of you.”

”Yeah, everyone is,” Ben laughed, “I don’t think anybody likes the angry version of me.”

“I’ve heard the angry version of you likes sex,” Skye joked.

Ben glanced briefly over his shoulder whilst he was on a straight road, “well, it’s true I guess. I have to put my energy somewhere,” he looked forward again, “and it usually calms me down, so it’s good.”

“I’m sorry if I overstepped at all,” Skye apologised whilst she held onto Ben, “with the comments.”

“The sexual ones? Don’t apologise, it was kind of flattering.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry for walking in on you twice whilst you were in your underwear.”

“Hey, I could have easily covered up.”

“Mm, but you didn’t.”

“What can I say? I’m confident with my body.”

“Yeah, I can see why.”

They arrived at the lodge, Sean arrived just after them, with Kaylee on the back of his bike and Noah running alongside him - Danielle must have stayed by the lake seeing as the camera crew had been with them at the time. 

Skye quickly ran inside, straight through to the office where her father was looking at the piece of paper that had to be the deed he was going to sign.

“I can’t let you do this,” she stood between the two men.

“What is this about?” The other man protested.

“Sorry, Gil,” Ben crossed his arms and grinned to the man, “but we won’t let you take this place away from us.”

Sean, Kaylee, and Noah crowded in the doorway. Gil turned and glared directly at his son, Ben looked over to Sean who’s smile seemed to drop momentarily. Skye grabbed the papers whilst Gil focus wasn’t on her. She quickly scanned through them and then proceeded to rip them through the middle.

”Not today,” she placed the pieces over each other and then ripped them once again, “not tomorrow,” and another rip, “not ever!” She then dropped the contract onto the floor and backed away shrugging, “my mother lost her dream when she died, so I refuse to let you take this away from me!”

“Skye,” Ed looked at his daughter with an unamused expression, “it’s not that simple, if we don’t sell this place… Well we’ll never be able to get the money to keep it going, it’ll be shut down in a week.”

“Because it’s boring!” Skye exclaimed, “Grandad works so hard to run this place, but there are barely any customers here – because it’s drab!”

“Did she really just use the word drab?” Noah commented from the doorway.

“I believe that we can make this place lively, people will want to come here! We’ll have… Oh! Live performances,” she turned around and looked at Kaylee, “Kayls is a musician! We can make it fun, entertaining, people will love it.”

Ed was trying to hide a smile as he watched his daughter talk, and eventually he turned to Gil, “I’m sorry, but I guess it’s going to be a no.”

Skye turned around to the group of friends, they were all smiling now, except Sean who looked as though he was trying to be happy. 

“Come on,” Kaylee waved, the group followed her out of the office and out of the front doors. She ran out ahead of them and grabbed the for sale sign that had already been pitched in the grass. The group got to her as she pulled the sign out, she stumbled back into Noah and the boy quickly caught her.

They were all laughing, overjoyed that they had managed to get there in time.

“I think you’re officially part of the group,” Ben placed a hand on Skye’s back, “welcome.”

“Thanks,” Skye grinned to him, she looked to the other three who were all smiling, “it’s nice to be a part of something new.”

* * * * *  
After ruining the deal for the lodge, Skye spent most of the night with the group of friends. They had gathered back at the lake. Ben had rushed off ahead of the group so that he could go home first. When they got to the lake, they discovered Danielle had left - most likely to find more content for the show. The group hadn’t been there for too long when Ben returned to them with a bag full of drinks.

“A selection,” he explained as he opened the bag, “so we could all drink to the lodge,” he reach into the bag, “Kayls, I’ve even got a fruitshoot for you,” he held up the plastic bottle of juice and waved it to her, “so you don’t feel left out.”

“Thanks Ben,” Kaylee laughed, Ben threw the bottle to her. He then placed the bag on the floor, “take your pick guys,” he reached into the bag again and pulled out a bottle of cider for himself, “to the lodge,” he called as he opened it.

“The lodge!” Sean replied as he rushed over to the bag, “I hope you know my dad is going to hate me for this.”

“You can stay at mine if you need to,” Ben offered, “if things get…”

“Yeah,” Sean nodded, “but I think I’ll be fine for now.”

Skye looked between the boys curiously, she didn’t want to ask too much into it. She placed her hand back on the grass and put most of her weight onto it, she looked up at the sky that was starting to grow dark whilst the sun began to set.

“The lake looks so good at night,” Sean commented as his focus moved to the water, “but also slightly terrifying.”

“Aw, Sean,” Ben pulled a face, “scared of the dark?”

“In certain circumstances, yes.”

“Skye!” The group all looked over to a woman who was rushing over to them, the producer of Danielle’s reality show. Skye looked at her new group of friends before slowly getting up to walk over to her, “hi, I’m Christine, I-“

“TV Producer for the reality show, I know. Under Danielle’s reign, right?”

“Her mother wants her daughter to be the star of a show,” Christine crossed her arms, “it’s hard to have a good show when the star is so boring…”

“I’m sure you just haven’t found the exciting part of her yet,” Skye shrugged.

“Please, the most exciting she’s said on camera was when she revealed that she and her boyfriend had participated in a threesome, but they won’t reveal who the other person is – that’s the most drama we’re getting.”

“They had a threesome?” Skye’s eyebrows shot up, “oh my God, really?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point here – the point is, my show will suffer if it lacks drama, I don’t want to produce a show that revolves one girl hooking up with her boyfriend 24/7.”

Skye looked around to the group of friends, Ben had started tickling Sean, and the Scottish boy was screaming with laughter as he tried to escape his friend, Kaylee and Noah were also laughing and sometimes Noah would join in with the tickling. She then looked back to Christine, “why are you telling me this?”

“Because,” Christine then glanced past Skye, “I think the show would be much better focused on a girl like you, you’re running the lodge now.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be very dramatic for you.”

“Your group of friends, you, Ben, Kaylee, Noah, Sean, and even Danielle… I think that the focus would be far better on all of you rather than just on Danielle – and then she can still be a part of the show, no issues.”

“Still, there probably won’t be drama – I mean, these guys all seem like nice people, an-“

“You lot are teenagers, Skye, there’s bound to be drama,” Christine grinned, “and listen, it would be great marketing for the lodge! We could get fans of the show to stay the night, earning you more money!”

“That’s a good idea,” Skye hummed, she looked around again, “I’ll think about it,” she offered Christine a smile, “but for now, can I have one night with my new friends? With no cameras.”

“Of course,” Christine handed her a business card, “drop me a call when you’ve made up your mind!”

Christine then left the scene and Skye walked back over to the group, “what did she want?” Kaylee asked, leaning over to look at the business card.

“She… She’s looking to focus her show on the lodge, on all of us,” she looked at the boys, Ben and Sean had now teamed up against Noah, Ben was lifting up Noah by his arms and Sean had grabbed his ankles – they were moving towards the lake, and Noah was screaming for them not to throw him in the water. A smile came to her face, “it’ll be publicity for the lodge, we’ll be able to pull in more customers…”

“After stealing Danielle’s show,” Kaylee raised an eyebrow, “well if you decide to do that, you have to watch out for the wrath of Danielle Clarke,” she spoke with warning, and then she began to laugh, “have fun with that.”

“I’ll do what I have to do,” Skye picked up her bottle, “whatever it takes to keep the lodge running, to keep my mum’s memory alive.”

Kaylee bumped into her and offered her a bright smile, they both heard a loud splash and looked over to the lake. Ben and Sean were both bending over, struggling to breathe whilst they laughed, and Noah eventually emerged from the water, giving both boys a death glare.

“So how do you feel about us lot being friends, now?”

“I’ve never been happier,” Skye answered with ease, and it was true – back home she only really had Josh, but here she had multiple friends already, and she was content.


	4. Reality Check (S1/E2/P1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and friends have been redecorating the lodge, but they're curious as to where Sean has been all this time.

It had been two days since the night at the lake, Skye and her new friends had put together the money to buy the supplied they needed to decorate the lodge, Sean had given them almost £100 of his own pocket money to buy the supplies – and of course the others had cashed in as much as they could so it wasn’t solely Sean’s money.

They were decorating the lobby area, where Skye had planned to place the stage area for entertainment. Whilst painting the walls she had only been able to go part of the way up, apparently she was too short to complete it.

“Need some help?” Ben grinned as he walked over to her, “let me.”

“I want to do it,” Skye held the paint roller back from Ben, she grinned up at him.

“You can’t reach, too short,” he shrugged.

“And if a short person wants to reach something on the top shelf, what do you do?”

“Do it for her.”

“Lift her up,” Skye held up her arms, “come on.”

Ben rolled his eyes and let out a laugh, Skye turned around and he quickly lifted her up from her waist, she managed to get the patch of wall that she was missing, Ben quickly placed her on the ground again, “I’m not going to do that for every section of the wall,” he whispered.

Skye giggled and then pressed the roller against Ben’s nose, blue paint transferred onto his nose and some on his cheek and as Skye ran off he turned around to chase her. It wasn’t that hard, he caught up with her and grabbed her by her waist, spinning her back around.

Off to one side, Kaylee and Noah looked at each other, “they’re gonna bang,” Noah whispered.

“Noah!” Kaylee wacked the boy with the end of the roller, “stop it.”

“Mark my words, Kayls,” Noah tapped his nose, “they will bang.”

Kaylee pulled another face, “come on, can you stop being so… Gross?”

“Right, sorry,” Noah smiled sweetly to her, “what if I said ‘they’re going to cuddle’, make it any better?”

“I suppose it’s a bit easier, even though I know what you mean.”

“Alright, well they’re going to cuddle so hard-“

“NOAH!”

Ben put Skye down again and took a moment to examine the girl, she had several patches of blue paint over her face from the roller when Ben had picked her up. He looked into her eyes after a moment, she looked back into his and it was a somewhat wonderful moment. He shook himself out of the moment and then offered a quick half smile.

“Uh,” Skye spoke up, sensing the awkward moment between them, “where’s Sean? Not helping out today?”

Ben scoffed out a laugh, “God no, I’m pretty sure he downed several bottles of wine last night, he’s probably hanging pretty bad.”

“Sean drinks wine?”

“Oh yeah, Sean will drink basically anything,” Ben looked up as he thought about his friend, “he’s a ‘go hard or go home’ kind of guy.”

Skye nodded slowly, “cool, I just… thought he was going to be here.”

“That’s Sean for you, nice face, looks like a good fuck, but when you really want him around, he won’t be there. Kind of like Nanny McPhee.”

“You think Nanny McPhee is a good fuck?”

“What? That’s not what I- I mean maybe at the end of the film, like if I was in the- wait, no I meant the last bit!”

Skye burst out into laughter, “you’re getting all flustered about Nanny McPhee now!”

“You know what I meant,” Ben huffed, trying not to laugh.

“Oh yeah, that doesn’t mean you haven’t got a hard on for Nanny McPhee!” Skye tauntingly pressed up against him and chuckled, “oh my God, you totally do.”

“No, no I don’t!” Ben backed away, grinning at Skye.

Noah and Kaylee continued to watch the pair, Noah raised his eyebrows, “they’re basically ba-” he paused when Kaylee shot him a glare, “cuddling in front of us.”

“Does Ben really have…?”

Noah hummed and tried to examine the scene, “maybe, I mean it’s not really like him to be shy about a boner.”

Kaylee pulled a face again, “I think you’re right, Skye and Ben are totally going to cuddle.”

“You can see it too?”

“You’d have to be blind not to see it.”

Ed walked into the room, “Skye! Come on, you want this place to have a complete makeover, but it’s not going to get one if you’re all stood around…”

“Sorry dad,” Skye grinned to him, “we’ll get it done, I promise!”

“Please hurry, we’ll end up losing customers at this rate.”

“Don’t worry dad, I have an idea to bring business in, trust me!”

“Last time I trusted you, you dropped a pan of boiling hot water.”

“I did,” Skye nodded.

Ben raised an eyebrow to Skye, “how?”

“She touched the side of the pan,” Ed looked at his daughter.

“Mm, then I yelled ‘fucking cunt’ and dropped it,” Skye spoke of the memory fondly, “I was also wearing shorts, so I got some burns on my leg from the water,” she held out her left leg quickly, but since she was wearing jeans Ben couldn’t actually see the burns.

“I didn’t notice them the other day,” he whispered once Ed had walked away, thinking back of Skye when she was in her underwear.

“You were probably focusing on another area,” Skye replied quickly, gesturing to her chest, she watched with joy as Ben’s face flushed red. She laughed and patted his chest, “sorry, I can’t resist.”

“Yeah,” Ben ran a hand through his hair, “well, we should continue with the decorating,” he smiled and then rushed back over to the wall he had helped Skye to paint. 

Skye went to focus on another area of the room, every now and then Ben would glance over his shoulder to Skye. She was something new, and it wasn’t exactly a secret that she was gorgeous, he knew that she was attracted to Sean, and who wasn’t? However, there was a thought in the back of Ben’s mind, that maybe there was a chance for him and Skye to have something. 

He did his best to keep his thoughts to himself over the next few days whilst they continued decorating, but every now and then there’d be a moment where he’d want to pull her close and stay like that for a while – still, he kept his thoughts and his hands to himself. His dreams, of course, had been occupied by the girl. He never specifically saw Skye’s face in the dream, but the girl in his dream was wearing the same black dress Ben had scene Skye in before. The dreams had mostly been a mess, his hands wandering over her bare thighs, her hands against his chest, both of them moaning every so often between the kisses. Ben would think about the dreams throughout the day, he couldn’t get those thoughts to leave him, but he’d be able to make it through. He’d be over the dreams soon enough, well he hoped he would.

“That’s it!” Skye called out in the middle of one day, and she was right – they were done with the decorating, “and it looks so good!”

“Good job team!” Noah shouted proudly.

“And Sean still isn’t here to help out,” Skye huffed, turning to Ben.

“Mm,” Ben hummed and looked into the girls eyes, moments from his dreams flashed through his memories, “look, I’ll go check on him – see what’s going on, I’m sure it’s just for personal reasons.”

“Thank you, Ben,” Skye grinned, “you’re… Uh… You’re a great person.”

“Thanks, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“See you in a bit,” Skye grinned.

Ben quickly ran out of the lodge, he quickly grabbed his bike from where he had left it and then started on his way to Sean’s house. He wasn’t usually too worried for Sean, but this time around he hadn’t actually had any contact with the boy for a few days. Ben knew how Sean’s dad could be, and he didn’t want to think too much of what could be possible – but he knew that it could be a terrible outcome. 

He pedalled faster than usual, glancing around sometimes in case Sean was off training on his bike. He took all the shortcuts he knew to Sean’s house and was there within a matter of minutes, he came to a stop on the gravel and looked around to the side of the house to see if his bike was there. He took a moment before remembering he kept his bike at Danielle’s house, he dropped his bike with a sigh and ran up to the door. He rapidly knocked on door, he nervously stepped back from the door, glancing around as he waited. 

It wasn’t long until the door opened, and Gil was stood just inside the door way – but still Ben stood tall, “uh, hi, Gil.”

“Hi,” Gil responded in a low voice, “what are you doing here?”

“Looking for Sean.”

“He’s not with you?” Gil crossed his arms and suddenly became terrifying to Ben. 

“Uh…”

Gil huffed, “of course he isn’t! He probably went to Danielle’s… Because nothing’s more important to him than fucking his whore five times a day.”

“Ah, you know what,” Ben began suddenly, “I’ll go and find out, bye.”

“Goodbye,” Gil slammed the door shut and Ben jumped back.

Ben ran back to his bike and quickly turned it around, he decided he’s go directly to Danielle’s house – Sean was most likely there. If he wasn’t, then Ben would really begin to worry. Danielle didn’t live too far away from Sean so it didn’t take him that long at all. Once outside Danielle’s house he jumped off of his bike and dropped it onto the ground again. He ran up to the door and knocked against it, trying to keep his knocks calmer.

Danielle opened the door and jumped when Ben instantly began talking, “Danielle! Sean’s here, right? Because he’s not at home and he’s not at the lodge, I haven’t seen him at all for the past few days and I’m really starting to worry! I have no idea where he is and-”

“Calm down,” Danielle held out a hand, “yes, he’s here,” she looked over her shoulder and then back to Ben, “but he’s not exactly in any state to talk to anyone.”

“Oh?”

Danielle shifted uncomfortably, “yeah,” she then shrugged, “he’s uh… He’s hungover.”

“Of course he is,” Ben sighed, “can I just throw a bucket of cold water over him?”

“No,” Danielle’s hands were placed on her hips by now, “look, I’ll send him to the lodge when he’s not h-hungover,” she flashed him a quick smile, “okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Ben nodded slowly, “sure.”

“Great, see you later,” Danielle waved to him and then proceeded to close the door. Ben paused for a moment before leaving the doorway, he picked up his bike and then decided to make his way back to the lodge.

Danielle watched through a window as Ben left, and then she turned back and ran up the stairs. She made her way to the guest bedroom and opened the door slowly, she closed it behind her and looked at the bed – Sean was lying on top of the covers, no shirt on, spread out in an uncomfortable position.

“I can’t believe you, Sean,” she whispered, knowing he wasn’t even conscious, “you’re going to be the death of me.”

* * * * *

Noah had finally finished setting up the equipment for the stage, “you ready for sound check?” He called out to Kaylee, the girl ran over and smiled to him.

“I guess so, and the guests are going to just… Be in here too?”

“Yeah, look, all I want to do is check the signal and set the levels. Just count to ten, you don’t have to recite a poem.”

“Oh, yeah,” she stepped onto the stage, and behind the microphone.

“Okay, just start counting to ten, and keep repeating until I tell you to stop.”

“Alright,” Kaylee nodded and nervously began counting to ten.

Noah stopped moving the sliders on the desk and looked up at Kaylee, “Kayls, can you do it at the same volume you’ll be singing?”

She nodded to him and then once again did as asked, counting to ten over and over again. Noah changed the levels for Kaylee, eventually making a decision and stopping at a level, “alright, all good over here!” He saved the levels as they were and then powered down the desk before walking over to Kaylee. 

Kaylee looked at her phone once Noah was finished, she frowned before looking up to Noah, “you’ve added a bunch of girls on Facebook, huh?”

“Oh yeah,” Noah nodded, “I think they all work for the show.”

“Cool” Kaylee nodded slowly, “I haven’t had any friend requests yet.”

“I’ll make sure to get them to add you,” he offered her a quick smile, “so, you’re going to be performing tonight, huh?”

“I’m going to get Skye to cancel it, I don’t really think I’m feeling it – I mean-“

“Kayls,” Noah crossed his arms, “come on, people will adore you, it’ll be great entertainment for the re-opening.”

“Oh yeah, everyone will be so happy to see me piss myself on stage.”

“Kayls, you really are riled up, huh? It’s rare for you to swear.”

“I don’t want to perform, Noah.”

“How else are you going to secure your BBC Radio One interview with Greg James? Come on Kayls, you’re good enough for this, you’re good enough for Radio One, and you’re good enough for the world.”

“And if people start calling me names? Laughing at me? Whispering whilst I’m singing? I’ll most likely end up having a panic attack, remember that school talent show? Hm?”

“Oh, and Julie-“

“Julie started laughing and whispering to her friends and then they all started laughing! And I went silent! I couldn’t sing, or speak, I just cut out. Full on blacked out, and before I knew it, I was tucked away in the girl’s changing rooms struggling to breathe.”

“Kayls, Julie won’t be here.”

“Julie won’t, but the memory festers Noah, it festers!”

“I’ll be there, just focus on me and nobody else will distract you.”

“You promise?”

“Of course, I’ll do anything for you.”

“Thank you, Noah… You’re the… Greatest friend a girl could ask for.”

“As are you,” he replied quickly, he then cocked his head, “wait, I mean…”

“I know what you mean,” Kaylee offered him a sweet smile, “no need to explain. I understand you completely Noah, we’re partners in crime, and we’re bonded through our minds and our souls.”

“Aw, Kayls.”


	5. The True Sean (S1/E2/P2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danielle reflects on the previous night with Sean before finding out what she's losing to Skye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: THIS CHAPTER INVOLVES DRUG USE  
> (There are also some vulgar comments about sex used)

After visiting Danielle’s house, Ben went straight back to the lodge. He skidded to a stop in front of Skye, who was stood at the end of the path, “hey there,” she called as he came to a stop, “did you find him?”

“Yeah, he’s at Danielle’s house,” Ben quickly got off of his bike, “she’s nursing his hangover.”

“Eek,” Skye commented before shaking her head, “does he have a drinking problem?”

Ben pulled a face and leaned against his bike, “I hope not, I can’t imagine he would… He knows that Danielle’s mum has a drinking problem, if he were to develop one it would be hard on Danielle.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Ben looked around, “why are you just stood out here? Getting some fresh air?”

Skye laughed, “I’m advertising the lodge.”

“I don’t think you’re doing a very good job of it, you should probably have a sign or something.”

“I’ve got something bigger,” she looked up to him, smiling still, and her eyes bright with pride.

Ben only retorted with a joke, “oh, I bet you do.”

Skye giggled and turned around suddenly as a van pulled up, “I’ve got my own show, well our own show.”

“Ours?”

“The lodge, it will be advertising, and I’m sure it will be fun. Christine says she wants to focus on all of us.”

Ben glanced over to the van, and sure enough the producer of the show was now walking over to them, “well,” he looked back to Skye, “I’ll get to work and leave you to it, see you later.”

“Bye,” Skye waved to the boy and then looked over to Christine.

“Skye,” Christine smiled and quickly hugged the girl upon greeting, “thank you so much for accepting my offer!”

“And thank you for giving me the opportunity,” she laughed and then brushed some of her hair behind her ear, “so…”

“Shall we go set up the cameras?”

“Yes,” Skye grinned, “come on!”

* * * * * 

Danielle was sat in the chair in the corner of the guest room, looking at her phone. She felt miserable, having her boyfriend show up on her doorstep at 4am in a terrible state wasn’t how she thought she’d be spending her early morning. She looked at the boy who now looked somewhat peaceful, but the one who had showed up at 4am was also still there.

The knocking at the door had gone on for a while, and that had woken her up just before the slurred sing-song of her name could be heard. She rushed down the stairs, hoping her mother wouldn’t wake up to the chaos. She got to the door and swung it open.

“Hey!” Sean yelped in a cheery tone.

“Sean, what are you do-“

“I needed to see you,” he grinned and stepped into the house, pulling Danielle into a quick embrace, he then pulled back again and began scratching the back of his neck, “I wanted to, didn’t want to be around my dad.”

“At 4am?”

“4am? It’s 4am?”

“Yes!”

Sean chuckled and leaned down quickly to place several kisses on Danielle’s neck, “and why were you up at 4am?”

“I wasn’t! You woke me up,” she pulled away from him, “alright, what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing, everything’s right! It’s all perfect!”

“Sean?”

Sean tilted his head back and let out a groan, “I promise you, Danielle, everything is amazing right now, I am… I’m good.” Sean’s hands were then placed on Danielle’s hips, he tugged her closer, “you look so good right now, you know that? So, so, good.”

Danielle pulled a face and looked into Sean’s eyes, realising he couldn’t have been sober. His pupils were dilated, and that was a tell-tale sign for Danielle. He breathed in deeply and pressed a kiss against the top of Danielle’s head before mumbling something Danielle couldn’t understand. She stepped back from the embrace and looked him up and down.

“Sean…”

“Mm?”

“Are you high?”

Sean didn’t exactly answer, he laughed and looked away from the girl before trying to change the subject, “how about we do something? I’ve been thinking about you givin-“

“Are you high, Sean?” This time Danielle demanded an answer, glaring up into his eyes, “and don’t lie to me!”

Sean released a sigh, “does it matter?”

“Yes!”

Sean laughed again looked into Danielle’s eyes, “it’s totally possible that I might have just had a little teeny bit…”

“Sean, what the fuck?”

Sean held onto Danielle’s hands as he spoke, “I had to escape, babe-“

“Stop calling me babe,” Danielle hissed, “you know I don’t like it!”

Sean frowned, “sorry,” he giggled again, “look, I did what I had to do.”

“Oh, and you had to do a line of coke at 4am? Of course you did.”

“Please… I’m sorry, can we just – can I stay here?”

“Yes, in the guest room,” Danielle growled.

“Thank you so much,” Sean moved forward and tried to kiss Danielle once again but she pulled away. He gave her a look of disappointment, but she ignored it.

“Go on, go up,” she pointed to the stairs and Sean quickly followed her orders.

Danielle hadn’t slept again, instead she stayed up, watching whilst Sean slept to make sure nothing bad happened. She wondered how he could be so foolish, how he could do this to himself. She had watched him for hours, then Ben had knocked and she had to keep it a secret from him. She went back to watch Sean, thinking about how she had been the one who had to put up with him being like this – it wasn’t entirely fair. Eventually, Sean pushed himself up to sitting position. He groaned as he struggled to open his eyes, and finally he saw Danielle looking at him. 

“Danielle, hey.”

“Hi,” Danielle crossed her arms, “Ben was looking for you earlier.”

“Oh, right.”

“They’re worried about you, Ben hasn’t spoken to you in days – and I’ve only had a couple of texts from you actually… This is the first time I’ve seen you in a little while – have you been… Getting high over the last few days? Sean…”

Sean groaned and fell back down onto the bed, “I’m sorry,” he closed his eyes, “I just… Feel like shit, dad gave me a hard time the other day because of Skye ripping up the contract,” he let out a sigh, “and he uh… He said that if I… If I don’t make things right, he’ll send me to live with my uncle.”

“You’re eighteen Sean, you live where you want.”

“He basically said he’d imprison me with him,” he fidgeted and tugged on his shirt, “I- I can’t… Look, I’ve got to go to the lodge,” he realised suddenly, standing up from the bed. He paused slightly when he got onto his feet, he took a moment before starting to move again, “alright, I should go.”

“Are you okay?” Danielle asked, “like… You’re not… High anymore, are you?”

“I think I’m good,” Sean smiled slightly, “I’ll see you later.”

“Should I come with you?”

“No, it’s fine,” Sean waved a hand.

Danielle nodded, “okay, just make sure that… You stay safe.”

“Of course,” Sean grinned and then quickly left the room.

Danielle leaned back in the chair again, letting out a sigh. She could probably finally get some rest, with no worries about her boyfriend having problems in night. However, just as she closed her eyes, she felt the phone buzz in her pocket. 

_**Kaylee** Hey, I’m so sorry about what’s happening with the show! But if it’s focusing on the lodge, you can still be a part of it! I’m sure Skye didn’t mean any harm when she accepted the offer._

She sat up straight, she was clueless to what Kaylee was talking about, but she knew now. She instantly stood up and locked her phone before slipping it into her pocket. She ran through to her room to get changed into her clothes, she would be fine with the show going to Skye if it hadn’t been done behind her back – but she had to find out through Kaylee. So now, she was quite enraged.

* * * * *

Kaylee watched as a group of girls swarmed around Noah, talking to him about how they were running the show, she rolled her eyes and leaned back against the table. Noah seemed to enjoy the attention, even if he was slightly nervous because of it all – but he looked happy with it still. One of the girls was explaining the diary booth to Noah and he gave her a nod before going to check it out, the same girl then skipped over to Kaylee.

“Hi,” she smiled brightly.

“Hi,” Kaylee responded quietly.

“I’m Lori, I’m a runner for the show!”

“Cool, a runner… So you do all the boring jobs, right?”

Lori shrugged, “I kind of enjoy it,” she looked around, “so… Uh… All of the girls are wondering, you and Noah? Are you together?”

“What? Me and Noah?” Kaylee let out a scoff of laughter, “no, we’re uh… We’re only friends,” she looked over to the confession booth, feeling sorrow for herself knowing Noah didn’t feel the same way she did, “just friends.”

“Oh, cool!” Lori grinned, she twirled slightly on the spot, “I just wanted to make sure,” she rushed back to the other girls and they began to talk between themselves. Kaylee dropped her brave smile and turned away, it was going to hurt watching these girls be all over Noah – but he wasn’t hers, he was only her friend. 

* * * * *

Sean pulled up to the lodge on his bike, as he came to a stop, Skye was walking towards him with a grin on her face. 

“Long time no see,” she sang joyfully to him, “we missed you over here.”

“Yeah,” Sean let out a laugh, “sorry, I uh… I had some stuff going on.”

“Ben was really worried,” she whispered as she held onto the handlebars of Sean’s bike, “and… So was I.”

Sean took a moment to admire Skye’s smile, and then his focus went down to the shirt she was wearing, “oh, new uniform? Very nice.”

“Thanks,” she placed a hand over her shirt, “I thought a bit of colour was necessary.”

“It looks good on you,” Sean shrugged, he stepped off of his bike. 

Skye tapped on the shoulder bars and walked around the bike curiously, “can I get on? I’m pretty good at riding.”

Sean stared at her with wide eyes, and he tried not to laugh, “well that was a bit of information I probably didn’t need.”

“I didn’t mean… I’m not- I wouldn’t know, if I’m good at _that_.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Shameless virgin, remember,” Skye smiled sweetly to him.

“I’m sure you’ll lose it soon,” Sean joked watching her carefully. 

Skye giggled and shook her head as she swung her leg over the bike, Sean helped her on seeing as it was adjusted for his height and not her. His hand was placed on her waist when he helped her and in his head there was a split second thought that got carried away – but he let go once she started to pedal. She rode around in a circle as she spoke.

“So, the reality show is focusing on the lodge, this is what happens when you’re not around,”

“That’s uh- That’s pretty fun,” Sean grinned, “does Danielle know?”

“Not that I know of,” Skye hummed, “but she’ll be fine.”

“You say that like you know her,” Sean tutted, “oh Skye, you have crossed a Danielle line today.”

“What do you mean?” Skye asked, trying to come to a stop, since her feet couldn’t reach the ground the bike began to fall but Sean quickly caught her, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close so she could regain her footing.

Ben, Noah, and Kaylee had been watching from the door of the lodge, seeing as Sean inappropriately held the girl. Ben shifted his weight as he watched, he knew what Sean could be like – and he didn’t want Sean to make a mistake like that. A cameraman had rushed past the group, following Christine to Sean and Skye.

“Danielle is going to flip,” Noah whispered, “and I’d hate to be around when she finds out.”

“Danielle doesn’t know?” Kaylee looked around innocently.

“No,” Noah shook his head quickly, “Lori said they didn’t tell her because they knew she’d be pissed off.”

“Oh, well, uh… She knows now.”

“What?” 

Kaylee pulled a face, “I thought she knew, so I sent her a text and… yeah.”

“Right on cue,” Ben sighed when he saw Danielle stormed towards the pair that were laughing with each other.

“What the fuck is going on?” She yelled once she got close enough, Sean and Skye fell apart from each other.

“Danielle,” Sean turned to her, putting on a smile. Ben took this as his cue to approach the situation, Noah and Kaylee followed – and a second later Ed came out of the lodge to keep an eye on the commotion.

“Don’t talk, Sean,” Danielle hissed, glaring up at him for a moment before turning to Skye, “it’s bad enough I had to find out through Kaylee that you stole my show! You didn’t even have the nerve to tell me yourself! Then I get here, and you’re cuddling up to my boyfriend as though he’s yours – he isn’t, you know. I do so much for Sean, more than you could imagine, you do not get to waltz in here and jump on his dick!”

“It’s not like that-“

“Oh isn’t it?” Danielle faked a laugh, “it’s not like that? Because it looked like I was about to walk in on you two having the fucking time of your lives!”

“Danielle, it’s not like that, it’s all innocent!” Ben stepped forward

“Oh really?” Danielle crossed her arms.

“Yes, they’re not going to fuck each other.”

“Are you sure about that? Because it certainly looked like it!”

“Yes, I’m sure!” Ben snapped back, letting out a stressful laugh. Danielle cocked her head and waited for him to elaborate, and he did, “they’re not going to do anything together because… Well Sean’s got you and,” he paused to look down at the blonde, “well, Skye and I are together.”

“We are?” Skye asked on impulse, turning to the boy.

“You are?” Sean and Danielle exclaimed, both in confused shock.

Ben stared down at Skye, hoping to get her to go along with it, “well, I thought we were,” he quickly began to act nervous, “I mean, you know, we kind of… Well, unless it was just a casual fuck for you? I thought that maybe we were going to start something, but if you don’t want to, it’s totally cool!”

Skye smiled quickly, “no, we can… Totally make it more.”

Sean pulled a face and looked between the two, Skye really hoped he had forgotten about their previous conversation of her being a virgin. She stepped closer to Ben and felt him wrap an arm around her waist.

“Right,” Danielle scoffed, “of course you two fucked.”

“Oh yeah, we did,” Ben grinned, “I can give you all the details if you’d like! Where do you want me to start? Do you want me to tell you about when I ate her out or when I bent her over the bed and fucked her?”

“And this is where I leave,” Ed loudly announced, clearly trying to block out everything that had just been said. Kaylee nodded and slowly began to back away from the scene.

Danielle pulled a face, “we’re just supposed to suddenly believe this? How do I know you’re not just trying to protect the little blondie? Hm?”

“Uh,” Ben thought quickly looking around, “oh! Skye has a scar on her thigh, right here,” he placed his hand on Skye’s thigh, where he was more than aware she actually had a scar.

Skye nodded and placed a hand on her hips, “are we good? Can we stop talking about my sex life now?”

They turned around, ready to leave the scene, but Danielle spoke again, “wait!”

Skye and Ben then turned back, both rolling their eyes, “what is it,” Ben ordered in an irritated tone.

“Ben has a tattoo somewhere on his body,” Danielle challenged Skye, grinning, “where is it?”

Ben clenched his fist, he looked down to Skye, the girl seemed to be speechless but then she suddenly began to speak, “right here,” she placed her hand over the left side of Ben’s chest, “and it’s the number twelve,” Ben felt pure relief – although he was unsure how Skye actually knew the answer, but he was just glad she did.

Danielle grunted, “alright, I believe you.”

“Good.”

“You two have really had sex?” Sean looked between them, and for him it seemed incomprehensible.

“Yeah,” Ben nodded, “and she had two orgasms – I’m pretty sure that’s more than you’ve managed to give Danielle,” he hissed and then whispered a quick “oh, burn” before winking to Sean, “it’s amazing what oral sex can do for a girl,” he and Skye then began to walk away from the other couple, one of Ben’s arms was placed around Skye’s shoulders, before they got back into the lodge Ben looked back to Sean, “eat the pussy Sean!” He then continued inside with Skye, his eyes were wide, “why the fuck did I just say that?”

Skye laughed quickly, “thank you, Ben.”

Ben pulled his arm away and stood to look down at her, “so, how did you know about my tattoo?” He asked quickly and quietly, they were out of earshot of anyone that could potentially ruin the lie.

“Oh, I uh… I saw you getting changed, in the… Locker room,” she pressed her lips together and looked to the area where she’d be able to see his tattoo if he weren’t wearing his shirt, “why is it a twelve?”

“The twelve is actually because… It’s going to sound so stupid, but I mean – I met Sean five years ago, and it was on the twelfth day of October. We kind of wanted to get tattoos on my eighteenth birthday and we decided that it would be nice to have something simple, and the number twelve fit.”

“You remember the exact day you met?”

“I can never really forget the day we met,” he whispered, narrowing his eyes and trying not to laugh. 

“Why?”

“You should ask Sean,” Ben patted her on the back, “but uh… Thanks for checking me out when I was in the locker room.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You know, everybody thinks I’ve… Given you oral now, and fucked you.”

Skye shrugged, “it’s not such a bad thing for them to think.”

“Oh, uh, thanks?” Ben looked around the area, catching eyes with Ed who was giving the by somewhat of a death glare. 

Skye noticed the look that her dad was giving to Ben, she then noticed Danielle and Sean walking into the lodge and quickly placed her hand on his arm, “I uh… I’m gonna just… I’m-” she began gesturing, Ben simply nodded and she then ran off in the direction of her bedroom. 

Noah came to a stop at the reception and grinned at Ben, “so, you and Skye?”

“Yeah,” Ben nodded, “me and Skye.”


	6. Music Night (S1/E2/P3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Ben's 'sordid details' are recorded for the reality show, Skye calls Josh for help. The group also prepare for the music night.

Skye shut the bedroom door behind her and leaned back against it, she had felt confident in the moment but now that she was alone and in her room, she felt her chest grow heavy as she thought about it. It actually filled her with dread now, people watching would believe that she wasn’t a virgin, and that she and Ben were together – she’d have to keep up the act. She quickly pulled out her phone and called Josh, knowing the boy might be able to coach her through it.

“Oh, I love it when you give me attention,” Josh sang immediately as he answered the phone.

“I need help.”

“What kind of help? Are you in danger right now? Did you fall down a well? No, that’s ridiculous, you wouldn’t have signal.”

“Danielle was getting bitchy towards me because me and Sean were close, and then Ben came over and told her not to worry and she asked why and he said ‘oh because we’re dating’, and then he said that we’ve had sex, and he’s given me oral, and everything like that. I mean I was going along with it in the moment, it made me feel powerful, but now I kind of can’t breathe and I’m freaking out.”

“Did this happen in front of cameras?”

“What? Yes, why?”

“Because I know what I’m not going to miss now!”

“Josh!”

“Right, you’re having a crisis. Is it really so bad? I mean, he does look like he’d be good in bed.”

“Danielle asked me where Ben’s tattoo was,” Skye sighed and moved over to her bed.

“Fuck, did she catch you out then? Wait, Ben has a tattoo?”

Skye laughed, “I actually knew where it was… I saw him getting changed.”

“How does he look? Give me the sordid details! I want to create a map of every muscle.”

Skye scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Josh, I can’t remember – can we focus on my current crisis?”

“Again, is it really a crisis? You wanted to lose your virginity.”

“I didn’t want to lie about it! Oh my God,” she covered her face and groaned, “my dad was there as well, he’s going to give me a talk, I just know it.”

Josh let out a loud yelp of laughter, and Skye sat in silence just listening to his laugh – she realised she missed having him around, but he was happy in the city. He eventually calmed down, taking in a deep breath, “alright, I’m done laughing – just… I can’t wait to see this! Is it airing tonight, what time?”

“Tomorrow at 9pm,” Skye sighed and began playing with her hair, “Josh, what should I do? I mean, I don’t know if I can keep up with it. Ben told people he bent me over my bed and fucked me, doesn’t that just make me sound like some sex maniac.”

“Not really,” the voice wasn’t Josh’s – he was currently rambling on about Skye and Ben. Skye looked up from her bed to see Ben leaning against the archway.

“You really need to start knocking,” Skye did her best to smile as she sat up, “sorry Josh, I’ll… I’ll have to call you back later, Ben’s here.”

“Oh, well make sure you use protection if he wants to bend you over again!”

“Bye, Josh,” Skye spoke quickly before hanging up on her friend, she looked up to Ben and patted the bed next to her, giving him permission to sit down.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, “about what I said out there…”

“It’s uh-“

“You sounded uncomfortable when you were talking to your friend just then,” Ben bumped into her playfully.

Skye held her hands together, “I think it’s just the… People are going to know about it all, it’s going to be on the show.”

“I suppose it’s one way to get a pilot picked up,” Ben offered her a smile, “look, you can always… Call it quits next week,” he shrugged, “or whenever you want to get rid of me.”

Skye laughed and pressed her lips together, “how about…” she pulled out her phone, “we make this a little bit more believable,” she laid down on the bed.

“What are you doing?”

“Lie down with me,” she called over to him, and he did so, lying down next to her. She shuffled back into his arms and held up the phone, she tried to get a good angle but after a moment Ben reached out to grab the phone.

“Let me take it,” he chuckled, Skye let him hold the phone and she then pulled his free arm around her to get a better position. She acted as though she was head over heels for the boy, Ben smiled to the camera as he took the picture, he took several more to give Skye options. He passed the phone back to Skye, “I think there’s some great photos in there.”

“Thanks,” Skye looked through the photos, she then decided on one of them and then posted it onto her Instagram.

_**skye_hart** be sure not to miss the very first Lodge Life episode of #YourWorld tomorrow night at 9pm! Can you believe I’m actually going to be a reality star now?_

“Lodge Life, that’s what they’re calling this focus?”

Skye hummed, “better than it would have been with Danielle.”

“Diary of a bitch?”

The girl let out a loud laugh and leaned back against Ben, “actually worse, it was literally going to be ‘princess in pink’.”

“Gross.”

“They love alliteration.”

“I can tell.”

Skye sat up after a moment, “so…”

Ben followed her and watched as she tried to form her words, he knew she probably didn’t like him back – even with her many remarks.

“So?”

“You know the whole… Thing?” She looked to the boy and he simply nodded, “well, I mean – what if Danielle asks me something about the sex? I’ve given head before, sure, but that’s all I’ve done!”

“Literally just that?”

“Yeah,” she looked into his eyes.

“Did the guy not return the favour?”

“No,” Skye pressed her lips together, “he went back to the party when he was done.”

“Sounds like a dick,” Ben laughed, “well, maybe soon you’ll have… A better experience.”

“Like you bending me over my bed and fucking me?” she joked, thinking back to what Ben had said outside, Ben watched her as she spoke, examining her, trying to figure out how she was truly feeling in that moment.

“Well, if you want,” he responded in an equally joking tone. Skye turned to him and raised her eyebrows, they then both burst out into laughter. Skye leaned up against Ben’s shoulder as she laughed.

“Thank you again, Ben. When I met you the other day, I never thought of you telling people how you’ve given me oral,” she released a snort of laughter, which only made Ben laugh harder than he had before.

“I think we’re going to get along pretty well, you and I.”

* * * * *

Kaylee watched two of the girls talk to Noah, one each side, both of them giggling at everything Noah said. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes, she had been friends with Noah for years, and she had longed for it to bloom into something more but part of her just wasn’t ready to make any move as much as she wanted to.

She wished she had been strong enough to, and all of her thoughts about the topic had been written into the lyrics of her song ‘If You Only Knew’ which Noah had helped her record, yet he had remained clueless. She opened her eyes again when she heard Skye.

“Here she is! The one and only Kaylee Marston!” Skye cheered, she came to a stop next to the girl and looked at her with a sweet expression, “you ready for tonight?”

“No, I feel sick,” Kaylee groaned in response, “maybe it’s from hearing what Ben said about you earlier… Oh God.”

Skye laughed and looked around, “come on, Kayls, they’ll love you!”

Noah approached the pair and Kaylee closed her eyes again as he began to speak, “yeah, there’s no way they wouldn’t! I told you, you’re going to be a superstar, Kayls. You said you’d do it earlier.”

“Yeah, well, my mood changed.”

“Kayls,” Noah pulled a face at her, “come on, I’ll be there.”

“Will you?”

“Yes, I promise!”

“Fine,” Kaylee offered a smile, “but if I embarrass myself, I’ll never talk to either of you again.”

“Deal!” Skye and Noah both yelped. Kaylee then looked over to the two girl who had been giggling with Noah, they were looking over every now and then, and seeing their attention so focused on Noah hurt Kaylee and she felt a pang of jealousy. Perhaps, if she sang ‘If You Only Knew’ that night, perhaps Noah would realise. 

* * * * *

“I have to say Skye,” Christina approached the girl in the lobby, “this reopening night, great idea – I think this will be fantastic for the first episode!”

“Thanks,” Skye laughed as she played with the skirt of her black dress, “have you seen my dad anywhere?”

Christina pointed into the next room, Skye smiled to her and then ran over to her father, he looked at her and pulled a face, “there she is, my not so innocent little snowflake.”

“Dad… About that-“

“It’s alright,” Ed laughed, “Ben took me aside earlier and informed me he was only helping you out, and he apologised for… The way he did it – but promise me if you do ever, you know, don’t let me know.”

“I won’t,” Skye laughed and quickly hugged her father, “so, do you like it? I advertised online, £5 a head at the door, we’re making money already.”

“I am extremely proud of you,” Ed spoke loudly, making it clear to the people around them just how he felt, “you’ve proven that I can trust you with this place, keep it up.”

Skye grinned as her dad rushed away to the juice bar, she watched him leave and then curiously looked around.

“Loving the dress,” Ben commented as he approached her, Skye ran her hands down the dress and looked up to him with her eyes bright.

“Thanks, it’s sexy, right?”

“Very,” Ben hummed, “and I guess you are my sexy ‘girlfriend’ in a sexy dress, huh?”

“I guess I am.”

“And here comes David and Victoria Beckham,” Noah whispered to the pair as he rushed past, their focus turned to the door where Sean and Danielle entered, Sean’s arm around Danielle’s waist. Danielle was leaning up against Sean but something about the pair just looked off. They both took a moment to watch Ben and Skye, but Ben and Skye quickly managed to focus on something else – and hopefully Sean and Danielle did as well.

People had started to mingle and only ten minutes later, Kaylee was getting ready to go on stage. Danielle was adjusting the girl’s make up for her, and glancing over to Skye every now and then, “you know,” she began quietly, “I bet Skye is only using you for more views on her show.”

“It’s about the lodge not just Skye,” Kaylee corrected, “besides, this could be great – imagine if someone important sees this show, that could get me out there! On BBC Radio One with Greg James!”

“Why Greg James?”

“I don’t know, Noah and I were talking about it earlier,” she shrugged, “it just kind of stuck as a joke since then.”

“Well, just don’t be shocked of Skye’s only using you, it’s how the city girls think.”

Kaylee shook her head, “it will be fine.”

Skye announced Kaylee’s performance and eagerly welcomed the girl onto stage, Kaylee looked around at the crowd, feeling the nerves. She then realised something else, Noah wasn’t around. She was silent for a moment, and that silence ran around the entire room.

“Kaylee,” Danielle hissed out a whisper, catching the girl’s attention, “are you going to sing?”

“Oh, uh,” she looked down at her guitar, “yeah,” she cleared her throat and then started the song. Whilst she was singing she made eye contact with those she could trust, Danielle, Sean, and Ben – she tried to look to Skye but Danielle’s words had made her think maybe she couldn’t trust her entirely. Towards the end of the song she finally managed to look to the blonde girl, and Skye was grinning from ear to ear – it was a look of pride, that look almost instantly dismissed Kaylee’s doubts. As she sang the last line, Noah emerged. 

He emerged with Lori, and the other girl that Kaylee didn’t yet know the name of – and he looked shocked, but Kaylee didn’t focus on him for too long, instead she focused on the applause. 

“Kayls, that was amazing!” Noah praised her, approaching the stage.

Kaylee took the guitar off and glared at Noah, “you wouldn’t know, you weren’t here,” she rolled her eyes and left the stage, she felt betrayed by Noah – it was something she never thought would happen. 

* * * * *

At the end of the night, Skye was at the reception desk, stood in front of Ben talking about Kaylee’s performance, Ben looked over Skye’s shoulder, making her turn around – Sean was stood against the wall watching the pair. When Skye looked to him he gave her a ‘I want to talk to you’ look, she excused herself from Ben and made her way to Sean. Ben began talking to another worker at the lodge whist Skye and Sean spoke.

“Hey, was this night amazing or what?” She grinned to him, “fucking good, right.”

“Mm,” Sean crossed his arms, “Skye, I’ve been thinking… You see, you told me that you were a virgin, and barely five minutes later Ben says he’s already fucked you?”

“I-”

“So, why are you lying about this? You and Ben?”

“We-“

“Because, no matter the reason, I don’t want you fucking with Ben. He’s not in a great frame of mind right now, and I know that this whole thing will get to him more than you think, so don’t fucking make up a fake relationship just to make your life more interesting for the show,” he glared down at her, Skye would have responded but Danielle came to Sean’s side and grabbed onto his hand.

“You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Sean suddenly put on a grin as he looked to Danielle.

“Oh, and Ben,” Danielle called over to the boy, “I’ll have you know that I have had orgasms because of Sean before.”

“Fake ones don’t count, Danielle,” Ben retorted back, grinning like a Cheshire Cat when the couple quickly rushed out of the lodge. Skye quickly decided to make an escape and rushed off to her bedroom. She began pacing, thinking of the way Sean threatened her. She growled and quickly called the boy’s phone – it rang a few times but then half way through one dial it went to voicemail, he had purposely ignored her call. 

_“Hey, this is Sean, sorry I can’t answer your call right now, just leave a voicemail!”_

“You think you’re so great don’t you? Telling me not to fuck with Ben? What is it to do with you? It’s nothing! What happens between Ben and I does not, and will not concern you! Okay? And if you ever want to have a go at me again, then have a solid fucking reason to. If Ben and I want to go on with this, you don’t have to get involved – aw, or do you want to get involved? Can’t you cope with the idea of Ben and I? Well I’ve got some news for you buddy, you’ve got a girlfriend, so maybe don’t concern yourself with other people’s relationships!”

She ended the voicemail and took a deep breath, Sean really needed to stay out of other people’s business. He had no right interfering. 

Skye fell down onto her bed and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself from the situation. She put her phone on charge and then decided to get changed into her pyjamas, perhaps sleep would be a better option to calm her down. Sleep was always the best option.


	7. Opportunities (S1/E3/P1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye sorts out her crisis involving Sean, and Kaylee welcomes two very odd guests to the lodge.

Noah watched Kaylee the next morning, hoping she’d accept an apology from him – he hadn’t been there for her performance and he knew how much it meant to her. Then again, he did help to prove she can do it without him, that she was capable of being brave by herself and she didn’t need to depend on him. He rushed over to her as she picked up cups from the tables at the juice bar.

“You’re a star, Kayls, and just wait until that airs tonight – I bet your Twitter followers will hit the thousands, maybe millions!”

Kaylee glanced over to him and then looked away, “and that’s the voice of someone who knows they should apologise,” she set the cups down and turned to him, “come on, out with it.”

Noah smiled to her and let out a quick laugh, “Kaylee Marston, I am so very sorry for missing your big moment – but I’ll be sure to catch it tonight! I promise!”

Kaylee couldn’t hide her smile, “alright, don’t miss it!”

“I would never miss it,” he whispered, “so… Am I forgiven?”

“Once you watch the episode,” she shrugged, “then maybe I’ll think about it.”

“Kayls,” Noah groaned, pouting at the girl.

“Fine, yes, you know I can’t stay mad at you.”

“I’m too cute,” he cupped his own cheeks, “so, you and I watch the show later, yeah?”

Kaylee quickly shook her head, “no, if there’s one thing I don’t do, it’s watch my own performances back.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll be watching it by myself then!”

“I’m sorry,” Kaylee laughed to him, she placed her hand on his shoulder, “right, I’ve got to finish cleaning up, I’ll talk to you later?”

“Alright,” Noah continued to smile at the girl as she rushed off, she appeared again and picked up the cups from the table – sharing a brief laugh with Noah as she did so. He wondered when he’d be able to tell her how he really felt, when he’d have the courage to ask if her song was about him, if she wanted to be with him too.

* * * * *

“I have a crisis!” 

“Don’t you always?” Josh asked before letting out a sigh, “what did you do now?”

“So last night Sean told me not to fuck around with Ben’s feelings, and it was just so fucking… Ugh! You know? I got so angry with him, so I called him up, he didn’t answer… And I left a voicemail.”

“Oh dear…”

“I basically told him that he’s just jealous of Ben and I, and that he doesn’t need to concern himself because he’s got Danielle. I accused him of liking me.”

Josh snorted out a laugh, “this is too good, Skye, you’ve really fucked it up now.”

“He’s going to listen to the voicemail and hate me!”

“Get him to delete it,” Josh hummed, “it takes like two seconds.”

“You’re right, I’ll text him.”

“No!” Josh yelped, “no, look if Danielle is a clingy girlfriend like you say she is then she’ll know Sean’s password and she’ll look through his phone and she’ll read his texts – then she’ll hear the voicemail, and she’ll probably end up trying to kill you!”

“Good point… So…”

Josh hummed in thought, it didn’t take him too long to think up an answer, “you should go to his house – he can’t avoid you.”

Skye began to smile, she quickly looked at her reflection, “good shout, I guess I’m heading out to Sean’s then.”

“Ah, so you know where he lives?”

“Yeah, we had to pick up some of the paint from his when before we started redecorating, it’s such a nice house. I’m ridiculously jealous.”

“Yet you own your own lodge, I don’t think you can be that jealous, Skye.”

“True,” Skye stood up from her bed, “I better get going, I’m meant to start work in thirty minutes – and I don’t think dad would be too happy if I’m late.”

“Run like the wind my child,” Josh cheered, “let me know what happen, if you survive of course.”

Skye giggle, “I’ll call you back.”

“Talk to you later,” she ended the call and tucked her phone into her pocket. She grabbed her jacket and ran to her door, she was going to rush out but when she opened the door she ran straight into Ben who was holding his hand up ready to knock on the door.

“Ah, Ben! Hi.”

“Hey,” Ben smiled, “I was just… Thinking,” he scratched the back of his neck, “maybe you and I should spend some time together? If we’re going to keep up this whole thing.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Well, I’m free later today, we can go out… Like… I don’t know- Maybe you could meet my family?”

“Oh,” Skye looked into his eyes, “uh, yeah sure, that would be… Nice!”

“Cool, I’ll pick you up for lunch then?”

“Yeah,” Skye nodded and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, Ben gave her a quick smile and then walked away. Skye made her way out, walking fast since she had to return before she was due to start. When she got out of the building she decided she’d run to Sean’s house – it wasn’t too far but it would involve a bit of effort – but she could make it there and back in time.

* * * * *

Sean watched his father cautiously from the breakfast table, he turned around and stared at his son, 

“Where were you the other day? You said you’d come work with me for a day, and yet – you didn’t show.”

“I was with Danielle.”

“Really? Well, I suppose Danielle was messing around when she asked where you were?”

Sean looked away from his father, “I mean, I also spent some time with… My other friends.”

“Sean, what is going on with you?”

“Nothing!” Sean snapped, “nothing’s wrong, why do you always act like I’m up to no good?”

“You literally just lied to me,” Gil crossed his arms, “do you want me to send you to live with your uncle?”

“Gil,” Ella called out, napping her husband’s attention to her, “just leave him be for a bit,” she gave him a warning look, “and you know what I’ve said about that threat.”

“It’s the only way I can actually get him to talk to us, Ella,” Gil whispered to his wife, glancing over his shoulder to Sean who was now fidgeting with his hands, “look, Sean, why don’t you just come work with me for a little while?”

“I have to train for the qualifiers,” Sean stood up, “so I can’t spend my time working on some stupid business site – and don’t you get it? Business doesn’t interest me at all!”

“Sean, give it a chance,” Gil sighed.

“Why should I?”

Gil went quiet for a moment, and then he spoke again, “because, if you don’t come to work with me, I’ll be cutting your allowance.”

“What?”

“N-no, I need that money for the qualifiers! I can’t enter without it.”

“Well then, maybe you should have kept some of your previous allowances,” Gil shrugged, “where that all go?”

“I…” Sean started, but he then gave up, grunting and standing up, “I can’t believe this,” he stormed out of the kitchen leaving his parents, they turned to each other – shocked by him leaving the room, but they then both stayed in their own silence, not wanting to say another word.

* * * * *

Danielle stared at her reflection, taking a break from brushing her hair. She thought about Sean, what he had been going through, and what he had put her through. Things were never like this, not to begin with – but then suddenly Sean just seemed to get worse., she knew things weren’t great for Sean at home, she was one of the only people that got to see him shirtless every other day, she had seen the bruises and the scarring skin. No matter how many times she had seen it, the image still terrified her, just thinking about it now made her shiver. She dropped her brush onto the dresser and closed her eyes.

She tried with all her might to get rid of the images from her mind, but the harder she tried, the worse the images got. She could see all the cuts Sean had ever suffered, opening up over his dark bruising. He must have been strong in the start, but somewhere it got too much for him and he found a coping mechanism – but Danielle always wished it had been something else. She had no idea where he was getting it from, who he was buying it from, but he had clearly found someone. Now she was left as the only one who knew about his addiction, and sure it wasn’t that bad of one, but she knew how bad it could get. 

She looked to the framed photos that hung above her dresser, one of her and Kaylee, and two of her and Sean. One of the photos with Sean was from their prom, she was aware now that he had been using before then, and that made her wonder if he had ever been high at school. It wouldn’t surprise her. She knew Ben wasn’t aware, and she would hate to see what he was like if he knew. The second one of Sean was nearer the time when they had first started dating, Sean was definitely clean around that time, she could tell just through thinking of how he was. He was beautiful, charming, and silly – and whilst, time to time, she had been fed up of him playing around and acting up, she missed it. She missed hearing him laugh with Ben about ridiculous things that weren’t funny at all. She missed it.

She looked back to her reflection, staring into her own eyes. She had been taking care of Sean since she found out, and she had been trying her best to keep the secret from their friends and Sean’s father. How was it that she ended up being the girl with the alcoholic mother and the drug abusing boyfriend?

She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and quickly tied it up, then she ran her fingers under her eyes, wiping away any tears that had formed. She stayed still for a moment, and eventually, she found the strength to move from the seat. She needed to stop dwelling on the painful things, instead, she’d focus on the good things. Or at least, she’d try.

* * * * *

Skye got to Sean’s house and knocked rapidly on the door, she waited for a response but after almost a minute she knocked again. The door finally opened, and Sean leaned up against the doorframe when he made eye contact with Skye.

“Hello there,” he grinned to her before quickly glancing her up and down, “to what do I owe the pleasure, hm?”

“I was just… Well… You see… Last night, when you… Said stuff to me, I got a bit angry and then I may have left a voicemail and I just need you to delete it, okay?”

“Alright,” Sean let out a quick laugh and pulled out his phone, “awfully kind of you to ask,” he looked at his phone briefly and then back up to Skye, “oh… No new voicemails.”

“What?” Skye stared at him in shock, “but I… I definitely left one – I’m pretty sure I did.”

Sean was grinning at Skye as he put his phone back into his pocket, “well then…”

“You already listened to it, didn’t you?” Skye asked in realisation.

Sean nodded, “oh yeah, I loved it – very entertaining,” he didn’t seem angry with her at all, in fact he seemed more than pleased, “look, I shouldn’t have said that stuff to you, it was totally out of order – you were right to be pissed at me.”

“Of course, I was.”

“And it was none of my business – I’m really sorry,” he pressed his lips together, “look, I shouldn’t stay to chat too long – My dad’s getting pissed off with me, and threatening to cut my allowance if I don’t go to this stupid business work with him.”

“No allowance? Is it that big of a deal?”

“It is if I want to compete in the regional qualifiers,” he crossed his arms, “I can’t afford it if I don’t get my allowance.”

Skye pulled a face, “Sean…”

“Fun, I know. I’ll talk to you later, so that my dad can drag me away to some boring business deal,” as he went to shut the door, Skye pushed against it.

“Wait, you should… Come work at the lodge!”

“What?”

“Come work at the lodge, you’ll be able to earn the money – and you’ll have plenty of time to train”

“I- Are you sure?”

“Yes! We’re always in need of extra staff,” she shrugged, “so what do you say?”

“Sure, that’d be great!”

“Well then, you start work today, stop by a little bit later – yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sean’s grin widened once again, and he let out a quick laugh, “thank you so much Skye, I’ll see you later!”

“See you later,” Skye waved as she began to walk away from the house – at least now she could make Sean happy, and she knew he didn’t hate her as he had seemed to the previous day. She felt a smile form on her face as she thought about it. Having Sean work at the lodge would be great, and she would be able to work off her crush on him – so she hoped.

* * * * *

Kaylee had forgiven Noah for missing her performance, but she hadn’t forgiven the two girls for stealing him away – what was their problem anyway? Why did they have throw themselves at Noah all of a sudden? Why did they have to interfere?

She was jealous, and she knew she was.

She didn’t want to be, she wanted to be happy for Noah – he seemed happy talking to the girls. She leaned forward against the reception desk whilst the place was quiet, the cameras were still recording but in that moment they were capturing nothing exciting. She looked up as two boys entered the building, they looked around in curiosity.

“See, Aaron,” the smaller one whacked the other one’s chest, “those cameras are absolute quality, we need equipment like that if our channel’s going to take off!”

“I don’t think people use those kind of cameras for vlogging, Kyle,” the other boy grumbled.

Kaylee cocked her head and watched the pair as they looked around the area, she cleared her throat and they turned to her, “can I help you two?”

“Ah, yes,” the shorter one, that Kaylee had figured was called Kyle, rushed over to the desk, “hi, I’m Kyle and this is my brother Aaron.”

“Hello,” the other boy waved, grinning slightly. 

“Better known as ‘kylenaaron’, our web persona.”

“I’ve never heard of you, no offense.”

“Much offense taken,” Aaron tutted, looking around the room again, “we have a very enthusiastic fanbase.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, they’re always laughing at us.”

Kaylee raised an eyebrow, “at you or with you?”

“Well, they can’t laugh with us,” Kyle pulled a face, “they’re watching our videos, so it’s at us.”

“Not always a good thing, you know,” Kaylee offered them a smile, “how about I check you guys out?”

“Well, if you insist,” Aaron dropped his bag and began posing.

“On YouTube!”

“Oh, yes, of course,” he quickly picked up his bag again and shamelessly pulled it onto his shoulder.

“So, ‘kylenaaron’, why are you here? At the North Star lodge?”

“Oh, right,” Kyle cleared his throat, “we’re here to get a ‘behind the scenes look’ at the reality show, I figured it could be some great research for our own channel!”

“I didn’t think of it like that,” Kaylee looked around at the cameras, “alright, so you guys want a room?”

“Yes,” Kyle clapped his hands together, “double – I refuse to share with him, he farts in his sleep.”

“Way to make me appear good in front of the lady, Kyle,” Aaron crossed his arms, “Kyle growls in his sleep.”

Kaylee laughed and found a free room for the two boys, “room six,” she turned around and grabbed the keys for them, “now if you’re going to create any videos whilst you’re here, I’m pretty sure there’s a policy about not spoiling the show.”

“We would never, cross my heart,” Kyle drew a cross over his chest, Kaylee leaned forward and moved his hand to the other side, apparently the boy didn’t know basic human anatomy, “ah,” he nodded, “thanks.”

“Someone failed science, huh?”

“Badly,” Kyle nodded, Aaron grabbed the key from the desk and held it up.

“Thank you,” he called out to Kaylee.

“You’re welcome, I’ll watch you guys on YouTube when I get a chance to!”

“Fantastic, remember it’s ‘kylenaaron’ like Fish ‘n’ Chips!”

“Got it!” Kaylee nodded, she saw Ben enter the reception area, “Ben! Can you help these two to their room? Room six!”

“I guess I will,” he shrugged, “even though I’m not actually working right now,” he pulled a face at her, he then waved for the two boys to follow them and – as promised – led them away from the reception towards the rooms. Kaylee looked underneath the desk and pulled out her iPad, she quickly went on YouTube and searched for the channel belonging to the boys. 

**AARON HAS A GIRLFRIEND?!**

**AARON’S GIRLFRIEND BROKE UP WITH HIM**

**THE BEST VLOG OF ALL TIME**

**TRY NOT TO SING CHALLENGE (Kyle Fails)**

She pulled a face as she looked at the rest of the titles, they all seemed… Boring, and definitely not unique. They were all roughly four minutes long, she didn’t need to watch them to know she’d have to try and help them out – because they weren’t going to get far with this kind of content. Perhaps being behind the scenes of the show would actually help them out a lot.


	8. Lack of Patience (S1/E3/P2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben invites Skye to his house for a family lunch, but a bit too much detail in conversation ends up getting on the wrong side of Ben.

Skye returned to the lodge, running into her father straight away, he gave her a disapproving look and tilted his head to the side, “well, if it isn’t my daughter – owner of the lodge – running late for work.”

“I’m sorry, I was sorting something out, making it right.”

Ed sighed, “just make sure you get on it Skye, you wanted to run this place, so run it!”

“I will,” Skye looked around, “except… Maybe… I’ve got to go out with Ben later.”

“Skye…”

“Only so the reality show can continue to think we’re dating!” She defended herself, “if we don’t sneak away every now and then they’ll get suspicious.”

“You wanted to run this place to keep your mother’s memory alive, not to be the star of a reality show,” Ed shook his head and then walked away from his daughter, clearly disappointed by the decision she was making. She watched as he walked away, she couldn’t let him stay mad at her for too long… But she had promised Ben she’d go to meet his family.

She sighed and chased after her father, following him into the juice bar, “dad, just this one date!”

“I’m not saying don’t go, I’m just saying you need to sort out your priorities!”

“Look, the lodge will be fine just this once… Besides – I’ve hired a new staff member! He’s starting this afternoon, actually.”

“Who?” Ed crossed his arms.

“Sean,” she shrugged, “he needs money for the qualifiers and I thought this would be a way for him to do it!”

“Skye-“

“Grandad will be fine with it,” Skye look around, “I’m sure of it.”

“Skye…”

“Where is grandad?”

“Skye!”

Skye turned to her dad curiously, smiling up at him innocently, “yes?”

“Patrick actually wants to talk to you.”

“Why?”

Ed shook his head, “I’d prefer for you to find out from him. He’s in the office.”

Skye instantly ran through to the office to look for her grandad, he was sat at one of the desks looking at some paperwork at the time. When she entered the room, his attention turned to her, “Skye, there you are!”

“Dad said you wanted to talk to me, are you okay? Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” he did his best to smile to her, “it’s all fine… It’s just, I thought I should let you know that… I won’t be working here much longer.”

“What?”

“I think it’s time for me to move on, Skye, and leave this place to you,” he stood up from the chair and walked over to his granddaughter, “you are capable of running this place – besides, I don’t think I really fit into the reality show,” he laughed gently, “but you, you running this place by yourself, taking control… I believe you can do it.”

“Grandad…”

“Don’t argue with me Skye,” he grinned and grabbed her shoulders, “you’d make your mother proud.”

Skye began to smile and she quickly pulled her granddad into a hug, “promise you’ll come back and visit?”

“Of course, I won’t be too far away, trust me.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

* * * * *

“Hi, Noah,” Lori called to the boy as he entered reception – Kaylee looked up from the desk and watched as they interacted.

“Hey!”

“I uh- I need some help, with some equipment,” she flashed him a smile, “you look like you’d be good at heavy lifting.”

Kaylee began to laugh, getting their attention, “Noah’s not great with heavy lifting, at all,” she smiled to him but the boy didn’t seem pleased by her comment, “it’s honestly kind of-“

“I’ll do what I can,” Noah turned to Lori and then walked out of the reception followed by the girl, Kaylee pressed her lips together and leaned forward on the desk again. She quietly hummed the chorus to her own song as she thought about Noah being with the other girl – it hurt, and maybe he was oblivious, but she wished he wasn’t.

“Kayls, are you alright?” 

Kaylee looked up to Ben who was stood the other side of the desk giving her a concerned look, she eventually nodded, “y-yeah, I’m fine.”

“Right,” Ben let out a laugh and looked around as Noah entered the lodge carrying equipment with the other girl, “aw, Kayls,” he turned to her with a small grin, “are you a little bit jealous?”

“What? No! Noah and I are just friends, why would I be jealous? Good for him, he’s getting along with a girl, it’s totally fine.”

Ben walked around the reception desk and came to a stop by Kaylee’s side, “even if you don’t like him in _that_ way, it’s still okay to be jealous, or upset even… He’s gone from spending every second by your side to spending half the day with the girls in the crew, it would hurt, heck I was like that when Sean and Danielle started dating, he went from my partner in crime to a missing persons case.”

Kaylee let out a weak laugh as she looked up to the boy, “and then what?”

“Then, Danielle matched me up with Ana and things were going great, after Ana left I was alone again – but Sean made sure to still involve me a lot of the time. He knew I didn’t want to be alone, maybe you should let Noah know.”

“He does, he’s known for ages that I hate being alone. Last night, when I was performing, he promised me he was going to be there, and he wasn’t. That hurt me. Noah has never broken a promise to me, some girls show interest in him and suddenly I’m invisible!”

“Just tell him how you feel, Kayls, good things don’t come from silence.”

Kaylee smiled up to the boy and then leaned again him, he quickly hugged her with one arm, “you always know what to say, don’t you?”

“I’m the Kaylee whisperer,” Ben laughed, he looked up when Skye entered reception and then slowly took his arm away so he could approach the blonde, “keep me updated on your feelings,” Ben winked to her and then walked over to Skye, slipping a hand around her waist to play to the cameras. Whilst Kaylee went back to work, Ben began to talk to Skye, “so, are you good to head out?”

“I mean – my dad wants me to stay at the lodge…”

“Then, how about we say that you were with me sorting out the pond?”

“The pond?”

“There is no pond,” Ben leaned down to whisper, Skye giggled slightly and shrugged.

“I suppo-“

“Oh, hello you two!” Sean’s voice called as he approached the pair, once he got close to them he spoke quietly, “so you’re still playing lovers, huh?”

Ben looked to Sean and rolled his eyes, he elbowed the boy quickly, “what are you doing here? I thought we were training later.”

“Oh, we are,” Sean grinned, “I’m here to start my job.”

“What?” Ben laughed, “no way.”

“Way,” Sean nodded slowly to him, “I need to earn money for the qualifiers, and Skye offered me a job.”

Ben hummed, “well, I suppose it’ll be nice to work alongside my best friend,” he patted Sean on the back, “oh uh, if Ed asks where Skye is, can you tell him that she’s with me at the pond?”

“There isn’t a pond,” Sean commented, tilting his head.

“Exactly.”

* * * * *

Once at Ben’s house, Skye jumped off of the back of his bike and smiled to the boy, “so are your family aware that this is fake? Or…?”

Ben shook his head, “they just know that I’m bringing a girl home,” he walked his bike to the side of his house and Skye stayed at his side throughout, “so, I guess they think we’re really together,” he paused as he locked his bike up, “that’s not bad, is it?”

“Not at all,” Skye quickly grabbed Ben’s hand in her own, “it’s nice, playing lovers.”

Ben looked down at their hands, it was a nice feeling, having someone again – even if their relationship was a lie, it was nice that he could go along with it. He led Skye around the back of the house so they could go in through the kitchen, sure enough his mum was sat at the kitchen table whilst his dad was preparing lunch.

“Hi,” he smiled to his parents, “mum, dad, this is Skye.”

Ben’s mother instantly stood up and grinned as she approached the girl, “hi Skye,” she approached the girl and held out her hand, her smile was wide, “you can call me Natalie,” she shook Skye’s hand.

“Natalie, that’s a really nice name,” Skye spoke honestly, and she truly did mean it – not only was the name beautiful, but so was the woman herself.

“I was going to say the same thing about yours,” Ben’s dad laughed as he approached them, “I’m Kieran,” he quickly shook Skye’s hand, “it’s nice to meet you – I’m glad my son’s managing to move on from Ana…”

Ben shifted awkwardly at the mention of his ex, “yeah, Skye is… Much better for me,” he let go of Skye’s hand and placed it on her back instead, “I already know.”

“Honey, I think anybody would be better for you than Ana,” Natalie sighed, quickly giving her son a smile, “make sure you look after him, Skye,” she laughed softly to the blonde, “promise me you’ll do that?”

“I promise,” Skye nodded, and she thought perhaps she should actually be there for Ben instead of letting it be make believe, it sounded as though his relationship with Ana hadn’t been that great at all. She stepped closer to Ben so that she was brushing up against him, she looked up into his eyes and offered him a smile, “I’ll be there for him.”

Ben quickly wrapped his arms around Skye and kissed her on the cheek, “you’re so sweet,” he then looked up to his mother, “is Ethan here?”

“He’s in the living room watching YouTube videos,” she sighed and shook her head, “I swear, I want him to get out more.”

“Nothing wrong with staying inside,” Ben smiled, he then took Skye’s hand again and led her through, to the living room, sure enough Ethan was sat on the sofa as Natalie had said he would be, “Ethan,” he called and the boy paused the video he was watching and looked up.

“Oh, hey, is this your girlfriend?”

“Yes,” Ben smiled and looked around to Skye, “this is Skye, Skye this is Ethan.”

“Hi,” Skye waved to the boy, greeting him with a wide smile, “uh… What are you watching?”

Ethan looked up at the girl and pulled a face, “it’s a stupid video to be honest, these two guys trying to be funny,” he showed Ben and Skye the video where he had paused it and a smile came to Ben’s face.

“You watch Kyle and Aaron?” He grabbed the tablet and raised an eyebrow at Ethan, “what a hilarious coincidence.”

“I don’t really watch them,” Ethan shrugged, “but I ran out of other stuff to watch, why?”

Ben looked over to Skye and then back to Ethan, “because these two are staying at the lodge,” he passed the tablet back to Ethan, “not the wisest people ever… I took them up to room six and the tall one tripped up the stairs on the way.”

Ethan pulled a face, “yeah that sounds like them…”

“Well, if you ever want to meet them, I can take you to the lodge one day?”

“Yeah, maybe you can give them some advice on their videos,” Skye laughed softly, and Ben turned to her with a grin, “I mean, what do you want to see them do?”

“Delete their channel.”

“Oh.”

“Lunch is ready,” Ben’s father called from the kitchen doorway, Ben quickly walked back through to the kitchen with Skye following behind, and Ethan slowly followed.

“It’s nice getting a chance to know you,” Natalie smiled as Skye sat down at the table next to Ben, “and we’ll even get to have a closer peek into your life soon, won’t we?”

“Will you?” Skye looked up wide-eyed.

“Your show is starting tonight,” Kieran laughed softly, “we’ll be tuning in of course, since our son is also going to be a star.”

Ben stared down at his plate in realisation, “oh God,” he mumbled, “uh,” he glanced up, “you can’t watch it.”

“Why not?”

“Just… Because…”

Skye pressed her lips together, knowing that Ben was talking about the moment where he stood up to Danielle. 

“Honey, we’re going to watch it, we want to support you.”

“It’s just-”

“Ben told everyone that we had sex,” Skye commented suddenly, Ben turned to stare at her, as did Ethan, “but it was a lie, he was just trying to get Danielle to leave me alone so he burst out saying he had done a bunch of sexual things with me, I can understand he doesn’t want you to hear him talk like that.”

“Thanks, Skye,” Ben commented quietly, and somewhat sarcastically.

Ethan chuckled as he began to eat his dinner, the others also took this moment to begin eating their own lunch, then the young boy spoke up, “I mean, the other night I walked in on Ben watching porn.”

There was a loud clatter as Ben dropped his knife and fork onto the plate, he stared forward at the table, not even attempting to speak.

“Ethan,” Natalie tutted to the young boy.

“No, I did!”

“Yes, but we don’t need to discuss it over lunch,” Natalie raised her eyebrows at him, “what happens in Ben’s bedroom stays in Ben’s bedroom.”

“Exactly, you don’t see us talking about all the times he had sex with Ana,” his father rolled his eyes, “the amount of times we’d be talking about that if we did, huh?”

Ben had chosen a bad time to try and drink the glass of water that had been sat by his lunch, he choked on it after hearing his father’s words. He placed the glass back down on the table and glared up at his father. After a moment of silence he stood up from the table, “I’m not hungry,” he walked out of the kitchen and Skye watched awkwardly. She looked around to his parents who both turned to focus on their lunch in realisation, Ethan was staring up at her when she looked to him.

“Should I go after him?”

Ethan shook his head, but it was Kieran who spoke up, “no, just leave it for a short while, and then go. We overstepped and it’s best to let him cool down for a moment.”

“Okay,” she nodded slowly, “I, uh-“

“You must know about his short fuse?”

“Sean briefly told me about it,” she looked down at the food and began to eat it slowly whilst she spoke, “he said that he gets angry easily, I haven’t really seen it yet.”

“That wasn’t even a quarter of how bad he can get,” Ethan responded with wide eyes.

“Ethan,” Kieran gave his son a warning look, “you know what we’ve said.”

“Don’t make fun of Ben’s issues, got it. I just feel like Skye should be warned how bad it can be.”

Skye shook her head, “I’ll be alright, I’ll ask Ben about it someday, it’s not fair for me to hear it from someone else.”

“Fair enough,” Natalie smiled to her, “how about we finish lunch and then you go see if he’s okay?”


	9. Unexpected Returns (S1/E3/P3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaylee figures out a secret that Danielle has been hiding, and a surprise guest shows up at the lodge.

Danielle stopped at the reception desk and smiled to Kaylee, “alright, Little Miss Sunshine – what’s up?”

Kaylee looked up to her friend and put a smile on her face, “that’s the nicest you’ve been to me in a long time, you know that?”

“Wow, okay,” Danielle crossed her arms, “I’ll go home then.”

“No, wait, please stay.”

“Just as I thought,” Danielle smiled again and leaned forward on the desk, “so why the grump? What’s going on? It can’t be cramps since we’re synced, so there’s really only one other option.”

“And what’s that?”

“You’re upset that Noah’s been hanging out with those girls from the TV crew,” Danielle whispered and pointed over to the other room where Noah was helping the girls organise some equipment, “jealous little babe,” Danielle tutted, “it’ll be okay, honey, there are always way more men out there – attractive men, oh, attractive men with money!”

Kaylee rolled her eyes, “that’s not it, Danielle.”

“Bullshit,” Danielle scoffed, “you’ve been in love with Noah since you met him and you know it,” she crossed his arms, “in fact, weren’t you in love with Potts pre-Noah? Back in the Lucia days.”

“Danielle,” Kaylee hissed, “you know Noah isn’t fond of us talking about that without him starting the conversation!”

“Hey, I’m just stating fact, the boys think you fell in love with Noah – but the truth is you actually fell in love with Lucia, and you stayed in love when Noah came out.”

Kaylee crossed her arms, “because you’re the only one that knows I’m open to falling in love with boys and girls.”

“You know, Sean’s bi too,” Danielle hummed, “and actually, I know for a fact that Ben has hooked up with a boy before – you’re not alone, Kaylee.”

Kaylee had a soft smile on her face, but she then pulled a face, “wait, Ben’s hooked up with a boy?”

“Mhmm.”

“How do you know?” Kaylee cocked her head to the side.

“Oh, uh,” Danielle pressed her lips together and hummed, “I just… Saw him with some guy, remember that party he had?”

“The same one where you and Sean had sex in his bed?”

“Yes, exactly, that one! He had… Uh… He had been with a guy in his bed beforehand, but the guy left before Sean and I could actually find out who it was.”

Kaylee raised her eyebrow, “oh! You know, Noah said that Ben was involved in a threesome once.”

Danielle let out a squeak of laughter, “really?” She cleared her throat, “Noah told you that?”

“Yeah,” Kaylee began to get back to work but she then paused and stared at Danielle, “wait…”

“Well, that’s some really interesting stuff, huh,” Danielle interrupted, speaking quickly and glancing around, “little, Benjamin Evans, having a threesome, lucky boy, right?”

“Danielle, didn’t you and Sean ha-”

“Wow, is that the time, I really have to go!” Danielle exclaimed turning to leave, she began to walk away.

“Danielle Clarke, get back here or I will shout – I’ll shout what I figured out, and then everyone in the lodge will know, oh and not to forget about the cameras!”

Danielle groaned and turned back, she moved back to Kaylee with a pout on her face, “go on, say it.”

Kaylee leaned over the desk to whisper, “you, Sean, and Ben had a threesome, right?”

Danielle was silent for a moment before pulling a face and letting out a tantrum like squeal, “yes, okay, we did, but you can’t let anybody know!”

“Alright, hand on heart,” Kaylee grinned, “but you have to know that this is… Pretty damn good gossip.”

“Yes, and if that good gossip gets broadcast then… Well, we know how Ben would get.”

“Good point, what song would you want played at your funeral?” 

Danielle smiled to Kaylee and then looked around, she was about to speak when her phone suddenly began to ring. She pulled the phone out of her pocket and when she looked at the contact ID her eyes went wide, “oh my God!” She rushed away from Kaylee to answer the call, leaving Kaylee stood clueless to the situation. 

* * * * * 

Skye had finished the lunch that had been prepared by Ben’s father, she thanked him for the meal and then stood up saying that she had to make her way to Ben. Natalie instructed her where to go to get to his room and she followed the instructions with ease. She knocked on the door gently and slowly opened it. She walked into the room, closing the door behind her, and saw that Ben was lying in his bed under his covers.

“It’s me, by the way, Ben,” she approached his bed and slowly lifted the covers, “can I… Join you?”

Ben let out a weak laugh, “I guess,” he rolled over and welcomed her into the bed next to him, she pulled the covers over her and shuffled closer to him.

“Are you alright?”

Ben pulled a face, indicating he was not alright, “it was just… Embarrassing.”

Skye let out a brief chuckle, “try not to worry too much,” she grabbed his hand quickly and offered a smile, “you know, maybe one day… They could be talking about hearing us having sex.”

Ben laughed, “you realise for that we’ll actually have to have sex, right?”

“Mhmm,” Skye nodded, still smiling.

Ben looked into her eyes, “and… For that… We’d most likely… Want to be dating for real.”

Skye didn’t say anything this time, she continued to smile at Ben and eventually the boy laughed and pushed himself forward to press a kiss against Skye’s lips. Skye giggled slightly inbetween the first few kisses and then she became more focused on him, falling deeper into the kissing. She fumbled with her hands, feeling the way down Ben’s shirt and once she reached the bottom she gripped onto it. Ben’s hand moved over her and he pulled away momentarily to look into her eyes, he didn’t speak, nor did she, but they both shared a smile. They moved into another kiss and Ben gently moved Skye so she was lying on her back. He sat up, Skye went to follow his lips but she realised he was actually pulling away so he could take off his shirt. First, he pulled off the checked shirt and threw it onto the floor, he leaned down to kiss Skye once again and then pulled the white t-shirt he was wearing off. Skye placed her hands on his chest, grinning up at him as he dropped the t-shirt. Skye pressed her lips together and kept her hands against Ben’s chest – just wanting to take a moment to look at his body. She traced her thumb over the small number twelve that was tattooed onto his chest, then she moved her hands to his back and pulled him down again. She knew that she wanted him in this moment, she could forget about fantasising about her and Sean ever being an item, instead she could be wrapped up in the warmth and comfort of Ben. She had kissed plenty of people before, but it was never this intimate – perhaps it was close with Harry, but Ben seemed to care far more than Harry ever did. Besides, Harry was just a fling and that was all, nothing more. Ben’s hands were on Skye’s waist, at some point his hands had slipped beneath her shirt, but she wasn’t complaining. 

She pulled back from the kiss and nodded down to her shirt, then reaching to the bottom of it, Ben took the sign and slowly reached to lift her shirt. She smiled brightly as he slowly lifted the material.

But of course, the moment wouldn’t last. Her phone rang loudly in the pocket of her jeans, making them both jump. Ben began to laugh as he rolled onto his back, freeing Skye to answer her call. She saw the caller ID, her dad. Instantly, she answered her phone and held it to her ear, whilst she did this, Ben moved to stay at her side, his hand on her stomach and his nose nuzzled against her cheek.

“Hey, dad!”

“So, Sean told me that you and Ben were sorting out the pond? Funny that, because earlier you wanted to go on a date with Ben today and… We don’t have a pond!”

“Dad, I’m sorry.”

“Skye, you wanted to run this place, you said you could make it work – you got the reality show here to focus on your life. None of this is going to work out if you’re off playing around with your fake boyfriend!” He whispered the last bit, but still kept the same tone.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible, I’m so sorry…”

“It’s alright, just please keep that promise.”

“I’ll be there,” Skye sat up before ending the call, she turned to Ben who slowly sat up next to her, “I’ve got to get back to the lodge, dad isn’t really happy with me.”

“Do you want me to give you a ride back?” Ben smiled, running his hand across her back, “better than walking.”

“Yes please,” Skye nodded and leaned towards him to quickly press a kiss against his lips.

* * * * *

Skye jumped off of Ben’s bike when she got back to the lodge, and Ben followed her inside, keeping a hold of her hand as she ran – it wasn’t that hard for him to keep up with her. 

She got to reception and came to a stop in front of Ed, “dad, I’m so sorry, I was having lunch with Ben’s family, and then Ben and I were just… Spending time together and-”

“Please don’t be mad with Skye,” Ben stepped forward, his grip on Skye’s hand tightening, “can you let her off this one time? Please, she’s… We just got carried away,” he shrugged, “I’m… We’re… We’re actually dating now, for real,” he and Skye held up their interlocked hands, “so… Yeah.”

“Oh,” Ed looked between the pair, noticing his daughters genuine smile, “okay, well… It’s alright Skye, just make sure you focus on your work – I don’t want to find out that you’ve been spending all of your time with your boyfriend rather than working at the lodge.”

“I promise I will focus on the lodge,” Skye grinned to her father as she placed her hand over her heart.

“Good,” Ed looked around, “well, you better help set up.”

“Set up, for what?”

“The crew caught wind that Patrick’s leaving so they began devising a leaving party, Noah’s been helping them out.”

Skye looked through to the room where, sure enough, the crew were setting up the stage, “and grandad hasn’t seen this yet?”

“He’s been in the office most of the day, sorting out some last-minute paperwork,” he smiled to her, “oh, and by the way… Well done, the news of the reality show has got people interested – we haven’t even aired the first episode yet and we’re already getting business! Sean’s been great with all the guests, they all love him.”

“He’s attractive,” Ben shrugged, “of course they’re going to love him.”

“Ah, of course, Ten out of Ten would bang, right Skye?” Ed joked to his daughter, bumping her shoulder with his fist.

Skye let out a quick laugh, “yeah,” Ben cocked his head to the side and Skye placed a hand on his chest, “don’t worry, you’re a Ten out of Ten too.”

“Hm, Ten out of Ten Ben,” Ben smiled and let out a laugh, “that’s got a ring to it.”

“Ben 10,” Ed laughed, pointing at the boy, “am I right?”

Ben nodded, letting out a loud laugh, “that’s great, Ed.”

“Thank you, I’m here all week,” Ed joked again and left the pair alone. Ben turned to Skye and pulled her close.

“So, your dad accepts me as your real boyfriend then, huh?”

“I guess he does,” Skye grinned and leaned up to kiss Ben, but a hand was placed on her chest, and one on Ben’s, they turned to see Sean.

“Easy there, lovebirds, not in front of the children,” he nodded down to a woman who was sat with her young daughter, “you’re still playing house, huh?”

“It’s not playing,” Ben whispered, “we’re dating now, for real,” he wrapped an arm around Skye’s waist to keep her close.

Sean looked to Skye instantly, looking the girl up and down, “you are?”

“Yeah,” Skye smiled and placed her hand against Ben’s chest, “we are.”

“Well,” Sean cleared his throat, “I’m happy for you both,” he laughed quietly and looked around, “so, you ready for the surprise leaving do? I think they’re planning on getting Patrick in here soon.”

“I think I’m ready,” Skye answered, looking into the Scottish boy’s eyes, “it will be hard though… Saying goodbye to my grandad again.”

“You’ll be okay,” Ben supported Skye with his words, quickly catching her attention again, “and Patrick will be okay too.”

Skye smiled up at the boy, staring into his eyes, she couldn’t decide whether she liked his eyes more than Sean’s or the other way around. She went onto her toes and kissed Ben quickly, Ben laughed when she pulled away.

Sean sighed, “I said not in front of the kids!”

* * * * *

The leaving party had been eventful, Patrick was having a good time and as were the other workers and even some of the guests that had joined. Skye had seen Noah and Kaylee have a disagree meant, he snapped something about helping out to set up for the party, and he asked her why she couldn’t just be happy for him. When he left Kaylee, the girl dropped her head and went to the reception desk where she could be alone. 

Ben and Sean had been having a fun time together, singing along loudly to the songs they knew. Ben would often pull Skye in to dance and she would of course join in – at one point Sean came to a stop dancing, feeling left out since Ben had Skye and Danielle wasn’t around, but Skye opted the three of them dance together instead so he didn’t feel left out. And Ben agreed.

They had fun – but it wasn’t even that late into the night when Skye dragged Ben up to her room, they could get the alone time they had hoped to have earlier. They’d stop every now and then to share a kiss or two, and Skye was ridiculously happy with it all. She could tell from Ben’s kisses alone that he wanted to be with her, and he wanted to look after her. They got into her room and she instantly fought to get Ben’s shirts off, because she loved what she had seen before. Once the shirts were on the floor she dragged Ben over to her bed, she paused next to it and laughed softly as they kissed again. Ben then lifted her up and placed her on the bed before climbing on next to her. Skye began giggling as Ben began to pressed kisses over neck, sometimes the kisses would turn more into biting and she was perfectly fine with that. She’d get him back. She began working her shirt up, and when Ben noticed, he helped her, pulling the material over her head and then going back to kissing her. His kisses began to travel down from her lips, across her jaw, down her neck, over her collar bone. For some, being like this might have been too sudden, but Skye was happy with Ben being like this, she wanted him in her life, she was certain of that. One of Ben’s hands was in Skye’s as his kisses made their way down to her stomach, she began giggling when she felt his hair fall forward and tickle her skin. He looked up to see her smiling, her head tilted back and her eyes closed. In that one moment alone, Ben was sure he hadn’t made a mistake with Skye. She was beautiful, she was kind, she was wonderful. He moved back up and kissed her lips again. The moment was perfect. She then flipped them so Ben was on his back and she began copying what Ben had done, kissing his lips, then across his jaw, then down to his neck – she felt him stiffen slightly when her lips brushed against the skin of his neck and out of curiosity she pushed herself up to look into his eyes. 

“It’s entirely possible I really enjoy people kissing and biting my neck,” he laughed, and he then pressed his lips together, “so… Honestly, please keep going.”

“Will do,” Skye grinned and then moved back to kiss the boy’s neck again, his hand instantly went to Skye’s back and he ran his fingers along her spine – apparently that was Skye’s weakness. She arched her back slightly before then hiding her face against the crook of Ben’s neck, “that’s totally unfair,” she whispered, letting out a shrieking giggle when he continued to run his fingers along her spine.

“So, you can kiss my neck, but I can’t tickle your spine?” He chuckled and turned his head so he could see Skye’s face, “you’re… You’re beautiful, you know that?”

“Thanks,” Skye pressed her lips together, “you are too.”

Ben laughed and pulled Skye in for another kiss, this one lingered, it could have gone on forever and neither of them would have complained.

A knock at the door, however, tore them apart. Skye rolled her eyes as Ben got out of the bed, “I’ll get it,” Ben whispered.

“Second time in a row,” Skye laughed, watching as Ben quickly pulled on his t-shirt, she stayed in the bed out of view of the door. If it was for her they could wait.

“I knew you’d be in here!” Danielle’s voice sounded out when Ben opened the door.

“Danielle, what are you doing here? Skye and I ar-”

“Someone is downstairs,” Danielle spoke again, in an odd tone, “and they want to talk to you.”

“Who?”

“Ana.”


	10. Party Planner (S1/E4/P1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye isn't fond of Ben's ex being back on the scene, and Danielle reminisces about her night with Sean and Ben.

After Danielle had informed Ben that his ex was downstairs, Ben had quickly excused himself from Skye – he apologised to her of course, and he seemed concerned when he left. She didn’t go down to the party, instead she decided to go back to sleep… And the idea that Ben’s ex was back haunted her dreams – she didn’t exactly know what the girl looked like, but she still dreamt about her. 

She woke up suddenly the next morning, when she looked around to her clock she saw that she was in fact late to start work. She rushed out of bed and quickly got dressed into her uniform. She then tied her hair up into a messy bun and rushed out of the room, she ran through to the juice bar where Kaylee was clearing up a table. 

“Here she is, the boss, only thirty minutes late.”

“I know, I’m really sorry,” Skye groaned, “I overslept.”

“I can see,” Kaylee nodded and she then focused on the table.

“Where’s Ben? I want to talk to…” She began to quieten down when Kaylee gave her an odd look, “what?”

Kaylee nodded over to a seat area where Ben and Ana were in the middle of a discussion – they seemed perfectly fine for two people that had ended on bad terms, “Ana and Danielle watched the premiere of the show last night,” she whispered, “so she’s up to date on the whole you and Ben situation, I think she might be a bit jealous,” she shrugged, “but that’s okay – Ben isn’t the kind of boy to lead you on and leave you hanging when his ex shows up.”

“You think so?”

“I know so,” Kaylee nodded, she glanced over to the former couple, “why don’t you go take them some juice?”

“Uh, yeah, good plan Kayls – go over to my boyfriend and his ex, great plan, not awkward at all.”

“Skye,” Kaylee passed her a jug of orange juice, “you were late to work, think of it as your punishment.”

Skye rolled her eyes and walked away from Kaylee with the jug, she walked over to Ana and Ben and plastered on a fake smile, “hi,” she greeted them, “would you like anymore juice?”

“Yes please,” Ana smiled passing her glass up to Skye. Skye took the glass and briefly made eye contact with Ben as she poured it. Ben looked Skye up and down and then began to smile slightly.

“Ana, this is Skye,” he introduced the girl’s quickly, “we, we just start dating,” he watched as a small smile flickered onto Skye’s face.

“I know, I saw the show,” Ana laughed quickly, she turned to Ben, “you said you gave her oral and fucked her?”

“Oh yeah, that part was kind of a lie, but Skye and I are dating.”

“Why would you lie about that?”

“To get Danielle off of Skye’s case,” he shrugged and then looked back to Skye, “are you alright?”

“Hm? Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” she nodded and looked around the room, “I should… get back to work.”

“Skye,” Ben stepped forward and held her hand, “I’m… So sorry for leaving suddenly last night, I’ll make up for it later, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Skye dropped her head, she then looked up briefly to Ana who was focused on watching Ben, “see you later,” she whispered to Ben and then walked away. She got back to Kaylee and saw the girl was looking over her shoulder to where Noah was in the next room by himself, “have you two talked since last night?”

Kaylee shook her head, “I feel like all I do now is fall out with him, it’s since those girls came along.”

“You should talk to him,” Skye placed her hand on Kaylee’s shoulder.

“Yeah, Ben said the same thing,” she crossed her arms and looked uncomfortable, “I want to.”

“Then do it,” Skye offered her smile, “I’m going to… Just…” She looked around and pointed off into another room, “sort out some stuff in the office.”

“Alright,” Kaylee nodded and let the blonde run off to do as said. 

Skye darted through to the office space that had been turned into more of a control room for the reality show, the camera set up looked more like a security system than a reality show. Nobody in the crew was present in the room so she sat down at the desk and looked at the live feed. She focused on one screen where she could just see Ben and Ana – Ana’s hand was on Ben’s knee whilst she spoke to him, and she stared into his eyes. Ben looked back into hers. Watching that made Skye feel uneasy, Ana leaned up against Ben. Skye clenched her fists as she watched the screen, but a knock at the door made her turned around.

“Spying on us?” Sean was leaning up against the doorframe, he let out a laugh, “really?”

“I… No, I just-“

“It’s alright,” Sean walked over to her side and looked at the screen where Ana was whispering into Ben’s ear, “don’t fret too much about her, Skye. She was always really close to Ben, quite clingy I guess. Ben is a good person, an incredible person. As are you!” He held onto Skye’s hand and grinned to her, “and there’s no way he’d go back to Ana after landing someone as incredible as you,” Sean cupped Skye’s cheek in his hand, “trust me.”

“I guess I’ll leave you two to it.”

Skye and Sean turned around to see Danielle stood in the doorway, her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. Sean stepped back from Skye and smiled to his girlfriend, “hey Danielle, I was just making sure Skye’s alright – it’s hard for her seeing Ana with Ben.”

Danielle shifted and then walked over to her boyfriend, “okay,” she whispered as he welcomed her into an embrace, “you’ll be fine,” she looked around to Skye, “I mean… Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Well, Ana and I were watching the show last night and she seemed pretty jealous, she said she wants Ben back…” She pulled a face, “but, it’s Ben – I mean he never really got over Ana.”

“They had a bad relationship,” Skye quickly commented, “why would she want him back?”

“I think she’s mostly sexually deprived,” Danielle commented, she then gasped, “hey, has Ben told you about my house party tonight?”

“No,” Skye looked at the girl, “he… Hasn’t said anything.”

“Oh,” Danielle pulled a face, “well, you’re invited!” She flashed her a smiled as she held her hand against Sean’s chest, “everybody is, it’s going to be pretty fun.”

“What’s the occasion?”

Sean laughed, “no occasion, just for fun.”

“Mum’s at a business meeting,” she shrugged, “home alone – what better time, am I right?”

“Fair enough,” Skye smiled, “cool, I’ll be there!”

“Ben can bring you,” Danielle suggested, “he knows where I live.”

“Alright,” Skye nodded, she shared a smile with the other girl, “I’m looking forward to it! The third party in three days,” she quickly laughed, “I mean… I’m not complaining!”

“There’s always good company,” Danielle played with her hair and looked around, she paused and turned to Sean, “you’ll be there too, right?”

“Of course,” Sean grinned, “because I know how parties end for us,” he laughed and leaned down to press a kiss on Danielle’s lips, the girl quickly wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Skye looked away from the couple and back to the screen where Ben and Ana were – or where they used to be. They had gone. 

“Damn it!” She mumbled, she looked at the couple who had stopped kissing to look at her, she brushed a hand through her hair and cleared her throat, “I’m going to… Just go… Sort stuff out.”

“Don’t look too much into it,” Sean commented as Skye left the room, she gave him a quick nod and then left – this time she would definitely be focusing on the work. 

* * * * *

Kaylee approached Noah, and the boy nervously looked up at her, they both clearly felt awkward since their last conversation.

“Hi,” Kaylee started quietly, “look… Last night… You were right.”

“Hm?”

“You were right, I had no right to be so moody with you, if you’re happy, I’m happy for you.”

Noah’s lips slowly formed into a smile and he finally looked up into Kaylee’s eyes, “it’s okay Kayls, I get it,” he looked around to Lori who was walking past – but his focus quickly went back to Kaylee, “I haven’t been spending much time with you and… That’s not fair. You’re my best friend, I shouldn’t push you aside now that I’ve got those two following me about.”

“Yeah,” Kaylee faked a laugh, “you didn’t get to watch the show last night, did you? Since we were at the leaving party.”

“I got my mum to record it and I watched it when I got back,” he leaned closer to her and grabbed onto her hands, “Kayls, you were amazing! Better than you’ve ever sang in front of me!”

“Really?”

“Yes!” Noah pulled her into a hug, “and even though I was angry with you, I had never been prouder.”

Kaylee wanted the hug to last forever, she held onto him and closed her eyes, “thank you so much, Noah.”

“You’ll be interviewing with Greg James in no time!”

Noah left Kaylee’s side and Kaylee was going to focus on work again until she caught sight of Skye, “hey, where’d you run off to?”

“I just…” Skye trailed off, “did you see where Ben and Ana went?”

“Ana pulled him outside suddenly, looked important. I don’t know, she’s a little bit complicated.”

“How so?”

“She had a lot of stuff going on before, when she got the opportunity at parties, she’d get wasted. That’s what kicked off all the arguments she and Ben had, she’d always tell him he did nothing for her and he’d freak out, saying how he had to take care of her multiple times when she’s been barely able to stand, how he’s tucked her into bed whilst she’s unconscious, just… He didn’t feel like she really know how much he did for her,” Kaylee looked saddened suddenly, “one time, Ben had beaten up a boy at school, and Ana freaked out at him, she started screaming at him in Norwegian, calling him a bunch of horrid names.”

“Ben beat someone up?”

“Only because,” Kaylee sighed and looked at the glass in her hand, “it was the day after one of the parties, and he had tucked Ana in and left to get her a glass of water in case she wakes up and… And he got back to the room and this guy was,” she paused and closed her eyes, swallowing and showing how nervous she was to be talking about it, “he was taking off the covers and trying to undress her, but when Ben got in, the guy ran out and Ben refused to leave Ana’s side again so he took care of her and just… Made sure nobody else tried something like that. He saw the guy at school the next day and just flipped. Ana had been furious when it happened, but he told her the entire story and she was shaken after that, she became anxious whenever boys looked at her – even Sean and Noah. She’d become uncomfortable and you could always tell, because she’d begin searching for Ben, backing herself up against walls until he got to her. I don’t know whether it still affects her, but it’s entirely possible it does.”

“Oh…”

“There’s many more complications,” Kaylee whispered, “but that’s one of the worst things.”

Skye pressed her lips together, “that… That does sound hard.”

Kaylee smiled brightly, “now that you understand, why don’t we both get on with our work, hm?”

“Right, yeah,” Skye nodded and helped Kaylee get on with the work, of course, the entire time she was thinking of the situation with Ana and Ben. 

* * * * *

Danielle had been organising her house ready for the house party, she had of course wondered how her mother had managed to keep up her stable job when she herself was in no way stable. She needn’t worry about her mother now though, instead she’s worry about the party. She pushed the dining room table against the wall to allow more room and placed her sound system onto the table. She was about to turn away, but instead she decided to play music whilst she continued to prepare for the party.

_Judas – Lady Gaga_

“Good choice,” she whispered to herself as the Bluetooth connected. She pressed play and turned it up so she’d be able to hear it throughout the house. She set up bowls of food so that people wouldn’t be rummaging through her cupboards to find food, and she set up all of the alcohol she had in her own possession – some of it may have been her mother’s, but she’d never notice. She also gathered empty cups and glasses for the guests to use. All the while she was singing and dancing along to the song, some of the lyrics making her think of Sean – was he a form of Judas for her? And if so then who was her Jesus? She paused as she stumbled across the thought, stopping dead in front of a picture of her, Sean, Ben, Ana, Kaylee, and Noah. Her eyes didn’t go to herself, nor did the go to Sean, nor Ana, nor, Kaylee, nor Noah. “Ben?” She asked out loud, it was no lie – she had always found him to be attractive but she knew he hated her after she started dating Sean. They were two different people. She shook her head, she didn’t have to be in a Judas situation… But it did start to feel like it was headed that way.

She ran her hand up her arm, mimicking the way Ben had touched her before – the night that she, Ben, and Sean had spent together. Ben’s touches had been so caring and kind, he tended to look towards Sean more but of course that would be the way, he didn’t exactly like Danielle at the time and she was sure he still didn’t. Even then, even when he didn’t like her, he caressed her, he looked at her as though she were a Goddess. Sean had been the other side of Ben at the time, kissing his neck as the boy watched Danielle – it was an amazing feeling, just looking into Ben’s eyes. 

_She didn’t take too long to move in and press a kiss against Ben’s lips, and they were instantly better than Sean’s. She couldn’t exactly explain why, but his just felt so much better. For a very brief moment she forgot Sean was with them until she heard him chuckle. He was looking at the pair from behind Ben._

_“Maybe we should take this further,” he had whispered, quickly brushing his lips against Ben’s cheek. Ben pressed his lips together before slowing starting to nod._

_“I… I actually really want to,” he began to grin, and they both turned to Danielle._

_She couldn’t hide her smile for too long, and she accepted the invitation. That night had been a remarkable experience for Danielle, having both Ben and Sean, they were all enjoying each other. Danielle had always loved when she got to be with Sean, but being with Ben felt different… And it felt good._

She’d never tell anyone how good it really felt, she was ashamed to think it. She looked away from the photo and continued to get the party ready, people would enjoy themselves and they’d have a good time. She was inviting friends she knew from school, people that the others didn’t really talk to, but she couldn’t have a house party with only six people. 

It would be a night to remember, she’d make sure of that.


	11. House Party (S1/E4/P2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christina sets up Lori to make a move on Noah at the house party, meanwhile Skye deals with Ben seeming to be more interested in his ex than her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains sexual references.

Skye’s phone rang as she was coming to the end of her break, she quickly answered the call and held it to her ear, “hello?”

“Why do I feel neglected?” Josh’s voice called through the phone, “just so you know, I’m pouting right now.”

“I bet you are,” Skye laughed, “so get this, Ben’s ex is here – I have no idea where they are right now… All I know is… I think she wants him back, and what am I supposed to do?”

“Uh, it will be fine, Skye. I know I’ve said straight people are complicated but they’re not _that_ complicated.”

“I thought we discussed that Ben wasn’t straight?”

“Do we have confirmation?”

“Of the sort.”

“Oh yeah,” Josh hummed, “okay well… hetero romances aren’t that complicated.”

“Better.”

Josh laughed loudly, “so, I’ve got some great news for you, I-“

“Ben!” Skye called out as she caught sight of the boy, “sorry Josh, I’ve got to go.”

“But-“

“I’ll call you back when I can!” She ended the call and put the phone into her pocket.

“Hey,” Ben smiled as Skye ran up to him. Skye caught Ana entering the room just behind Ben and she quickly leaned in to kiss her boyfriend on the lips, when she pulled back she looked at Ana – finding the girl’s discomfort enjoyable. She wrapped her arms around Ben’s neck and grinned up at him, Ben only pulled a face, “what are you doing?” He laughed.

Skye shrugged, “can’t I get close with my boyfriend?”

“Well, yeah, I just,” he looked to Ana who had her arms crossed and was looking down at the floor, “Ana, are you alright?”

“I think so,” Ana nodded, putting on a smile, “just a little bit… uh…”

“You look fine,” Skye commented to Ana, the other girl quickly walked off and so she turned back to her boyfriend, “Ben, I was thinking that you and I could-“

“Sorry Skye,” Ben whispered, “I need to make sure she’s okay.”

Ben quickly kissed Skye on the cheek and followed the direction Ana had fled in. Skye groaned and held out her arms, when Ben was out of ear shot she spoke, “she’s not even your girlfriend anymore…”

Ben had followed Ana through to the juice bar again, he had been showing her around the lodge since they had had their makeover – he grabbed her wrist when he caught up to her, “hey, are you sure you’re alright? I just need to make sure.”

Ana pressed her lips together as she looked into his eyes, “yes, yes I think I’m okay.”

“Ana…”

“For now,” she whispered, “I just didn’t want to intrude on you and your girlfriend.”

“You weren’t intruding,” he offered her a smile, “you know I just have to make sure you’re okay…”

Ana smiled back to him, “she doesn’t like me, your girlfriend.”

“It’s natural jealousy – when you see your partner with their ex… Things aren’t going to be easy. Look, I’ll talk to her, tell her to ease up on you.”

“No, it’s fine,” Ana waved a hand, “I’ll be fine.”

“Ana…”

“Stop worrying, Ben!” Ana suddenly snapped, her expression quickly softened, “sorry, I didn’t mean to… To raise my voice.”

Ben nodded slowly, “it’s okay…” They both knew it was a lie, Ben was clearly doing his best not to snap back at her.

“Are you going to the party tonight?” Ana suddenly smiled, “Danielle invited me!”

“Oh, uh, yeah, yeah I think I am going. I don’t know about Skye though.”

“That’s fine, more time for us, huh?”

“Ana…”

Ana rolled her eyes, “come on Ben, that girl… She’s…”

“She’s what?”

“She’s not me,” Ana held her head high, “she won’t know what you like,” she lifted her hand and brushed her fingers across his neck, “she won’t know what turns you on, how to really,” she leaned closer, her lips next to his ear so she could whisper, “bring you to orgasm,” she pulled back again, “she can try but… You two won’t have what we had, what we could still have. “

Ben shook his head, “I’ve got to get back to work, I’ll see you at the party.”

“Ben…”

“I’ll see you later.”

Ben rushed off, avoiding any further confrontation from Ana. He didn’t need it, not now.

* * * * *

Christine pulled Lori aside and looked at the girl, “so how’s it going? The whole… Noah situation?”

Lori nodded slowly, “it’s uh… Going well, I think Kaylee is jealous.”

Christine began to grin, “good, keep it up – it will make an amazing finale for the show,” she looked around, “I’ll need to get some more footage tonight.”

“Oh, no. Noah’s going to a house party at Danielle’s,” Lori shrugged, “I don’t think Kaylee, Skye, Ben, or Sean will be working here tonight.”

Christine crossed her arms, “Danielle’s, did you say?”

“Yes.”

“That girl is desperate to get on camera,” she let out a quick laugh, “I suppose it’s time to take the crew to her, huh?”

“What?”

“We’re going to film this party!” Christine clapped her hands together, “and you are going to stir up some more drama with Noah and Kaylee, perhaps you and Hannah can dance with him – lead him on.”

“Lead him on?” Lori repeated with uncertainty in her voice, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Noah’s a nice boy.”

“You have to lead him on, Lori, or else he won’t end up with Kaylee.”

“But, that would hurt him…”

“Yes,” Christine glared at her with wide eyes, “God, Lori, do you not understand? Little Noah gets all angsty and Kaylee is the one there to comfort him.”

Lori pulled a face.

“In fact,” Christine continued, “why don’t you see if you can get him in bed tonight, hm? If you’re feeling scandalous enough, get Hannah to join in.”

“I’m not going to have sex with him,” Lori yelped, “I’m not going to use him like that!”

“Lori,” Christine hissed, “remember you work for us, you told me you were willing to do anything.”

“Not be exploited on television!” Lori stepped back and looked around, catching Kaylee duck behind the archway, she looked to Christine again, “I don’t think Hannah would want that either, neither would Noah!”

“Lori,” Christine said her name in a warning tone – acting as though she were the girl’s mother, “you need to do this.”

Lori rolled her eyes, “fine, fine I’ll talk to Danielle about having the cameras at the party.”

“Perfect, let me know when she gets back to you!” Christine then left through another exit, as Kaylee entered from the doorway she was stood at.

“What a ploy,” she hissed in an angered tone, “really?”

“I don’t want to do it,” Lori shook her head, “please Kaylee, please believe me.”

Kaylee pulled a face as she examined the girl, but eventually her own expression softened, “you really don’t?”

“I would never want to hurt Noah,” Lori whispered to Kaylee, stepping closer to her, “or you.”

“Right,” Kaylee looked around the area quickly, “so…”

“I will…. I will go to the party,” she pressed her lips together, “but I won’t do anything to Noah… I’ll tell him the truth.”

Kaylee nodded slowly, “but that will get cut out of editing.”

Lori pulled a face, and she then clapped her hands together, “oh! Well, what if… I think Christine would love the idea of a live show!”

“A live show?”

“Yes, they can’t cut anything out then!” Lori grinned, “I’m sure I can do something about it…”

“Isn’t it a bit early in the series to have a live show?”

“They did a live show for the night club, the focus last year. They aired it on the website, I think we can do the same thing,” Lori shrugged, “then… Then I can let people know the truth, I’ll tell Noah that Christine set me up to mess with him.”

Kaylee smiled to the girl, “really?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you so much, Lori,” Kaylee rushed forward and wrapped her arms around the girl, “I trust you’ll make the right choice.”

“I will, I promise.”

* * * * *

Danielle agreed easily to filming the party for a live event of the show – she was ecstatic, in fact. She helped the crew inside and they decided on the best places to put the cameras. The kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the hallway and of course, the upstairs hallway. They were only temporary fixings, but most of them seemed hidden even then. 

The party started not to long after the crew had set up, and of course they had to get all the partygoers to sign contracts whilst they were sober. The first people to arrive were mostly people friends from school, Danielle spent a while looking over people’s shoulders trying to find Kaylee, Sean, or even Ben. None of them were there yet so she grabbed a drink whilst the table was still clean. She began to drink quickly, feeling the anxiety of having the school mates she rarely talks to now.

Eventually, Kaylee and Noah turned up, Kaylee looking uncomfortable in the party atmosphere but she had still dressed up for the occasion.

“You look amazing, Kaylee,” Danielle grinned as she looked at the girl, “genuinely.”

“Thanks,” Kaylee laughed, “do you have anything… Non-alcoholic?”

“Orange and mango juice in the fridge,” Danielle offered, and Kaylee nodded, she grabbed a cup from the table and ran through to the kitchen, Noah put on a smile to Danielle.

“Julie’s here, isn’t she?”

Danielle looked around and spotted the girl he had mentioned, she nodded to Noah, “yeah, she is.”

“Why?” Noah groaned, “you know she’s just going to rip into all of us, right? Well, maybe not you – but me and Kaylee are going to get-”

“If she bugs you just tell Ben,” Danielle shrugged, “he’ll probably sort it out for you, like he sorted out that guy who… You know.”

“I think Julie being a bitch is a different situation,” Noah pulled a face but put on a smile when Kaylee came back to his side.

“Oh hey,” Kaylee pointed over to the door, “Lori’s here!”

Noah looked around to Lori who was followed by the other girl, Hannah, both of them dressed for the occasion rather than work, “they look amazing.”

Kaylee rolled her eyes, “yeah, I’m sure you’ll still be thinking that,” she mumbled, turning away and sipping her orange juice.

“What was that?”

“Hm? What? I didn’t say anythi-” Kaylee froze and stared at someone across the room, “is that Julie?”

“Yeah,” Danielle nodded.

“She looks… Why does she look like a supermodel all of a sudden? I know she was pretty, but this is ridiculous! Nobody looks like that!”

Danielle placed an arm around Kaylee, “Kayls, no need to feel insecure, we all have our perks.”

“And hers are,” Kaylee gestured to her own chest, “certainly perks,” Danielle and Kaylee cocked their heads to the side, eventually Danielle laughed.

“She’s wearing a push-up bra, Kaylee, nothing to fret about.”

“A push up?”

“Yes, and what eighteen-year old wears a push up bra?” She tutted in a judgemental fashion, “ones who want people to think they have more than what they do,” she hissed a whisper and looked over to the blonde again, “Julie is nothing for you to worry about, I promise.”

“She just-”

Danielle gave Kaylee a warning look, “stop worrying about what she has to think, because her opinions mean nothing, Kaylee! The only opinions that matter are the ones from the people that really care about you!”

Kaylee gave a brief smile to Danielle and then looked around to where Lori and Hannah were both talking to Noah – she wasn’t jealous, this time around she was happy to see that it the conversation was happening, because surely the girls would tell him the truth and he’d realise he was being played.

“And here comes the newest couple,” Danielle groaned as Skye and Ben entered the party, behind them trailed Ana – suddenly the look on Skye’s face made Danielle grin, “well, she isn’t happy – is she? I should go talk to them, I’ll come back in a bit.”

“Alright,” Kaylee hummed, “I’m going to sit down,” she mumbled the last words as Danielle left her side.

Danielle stood in front of the new couple with a grin on her face, and Ana quickly jumped to her side, “I’m so glad you guys could come!”

“I didn’t realise Ana would be coming too,” Skye commented, in front of the girl in question – she then offered a fake smile.

“I’ve still got things to sort out,” Ana whispered, shifting uncomfortably, after a moment of silence she turned to Danielle, “is Sean here? I haven’t said hi to him yet!”

“Not yet,” Danielle crossed her arms, “he was meant to be helping me out, but he’s nowhere to be found – isn’t that just Sean for you? He’ll probably show up at 4am,” she looked to Ben who had a quick expression of concern for the boy, and then she quickly waved it off, “he’ll be fine – he always is.”

Ben nodded, he then stepped away from Skye and closer to Danielle – managing to get closer to her so the other girls wouldn’t hear, “if something was wrong with Sean, you’d tell me, right?”

“Yeah,” Danielle nodded, “yeah I will,” so perhaps she was bluffing, but at this point in time Ben didn’t need to know about it.

On cue, the door was opened by another party guest and Sean walked in, he thanked the person who opened the door and then instantly made his way over to Danielle, “hey there,” he placed an arm around her waist and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek, “you look stunning tonight,” he let out a quick laugh, “I’ve been here for a minute and I already know how I want tonight to end.”

Danielle laughed in response, “maybe, depending on what state you’re in,” she glared up at him. 

Sean rolled his eyes, “yeah, yeah, I know,” he looked over to Ben and smiled, “and you two lasted more than one night, so the sex wasn’t disappointing?”

“We didn’t have sex,” Skye sighed, “we were interrupted.”

Ben nodded to Ana who Sean had somehow missed, Sean turned to the girl and held out his arms, “oh hey there little one!” He cheered loudly and wrapped her arms around her quickly, “how are you?”

“I’m good!” Ana giggled, “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I bet,” Sean laughed and tapped his nose as he winked to her, “think we’ll have to have a little catch up later, eh?”

Ana grinned to Sean, “yes! Of course,” she looked around, “I’m going to go get a drink,” she excused herself and then left the two couples.

“She’s pretty,” Skye commented briefly to Ben.

Sean snorted out a laugh, “I’m pretty sure that’s only a fraction of what Ben thought.”

Ben rolled his eyes, “shut up, Sean.”

“I’m pretty sure he wanted to screw her when he first set eyes on her.”

“Sean,” Danielle thumped her hand against Sean’s chest.

“He said something about bending her over and fu-“

“That’s not what happened,” Ben whispered to Skye.

Sean hummed, “oh, that’s right, she was bending over in front of him in her PE shorts,” Sean snorted out a gross laugh and looked at the boy with wide eyes, “if I’m not mistaken, you disappeared to the toilets for a good fifteen minutes.”

Skye didn’t seem to care, she simply laughed, “well he’s a teenage boy,” she looked to Ben with bright eyes, “so I know what you’re up to if you ever disappear for fifteen minutes?”

There was a laugh shared between Skye and Ben, Danielle looked at the pair in disgust whilst Sean seemed defeated by the response. Sean eventually cleared his throat, bringing Skye and Ben’s attention back to him, “well that’s if he can last more than three minutes.”

Danielle looked at Sean with her eyebrows raised, “like you were even that good when we started out,” she grumbled to him. 

Ben released a shriek of laughter, “Sean always said that you two had an amazing first time together,” he tutted, “guess he was lying, hm?”

Danielle nodded, “Sean thought it was good for him, but it was dry, rough, and painful for me,” she looked into her boyfriend’s eyes, “only being honest honey,” she placed a hand against his chest and looked back to Skye and Ben, “but I’m sure Ben knows how to make a girl wet, right?”

Ben nodded, “of course I know.”

Danielle turned to Sean with a wicked smile, “aw, perhaps big bad Benjamin should teach you sometime, seeing as you’re… Well, less knowledgeable.”

“Danielle!” Sean squealed, looking at the girl, “come on…”

“I don’t cum, Sean, that’s the issue here,” Danielle retorted, flashing him a grin, “one day though, one day you’ll get me there.”

Sean shifted and crossed his arms, “great, thanks Danielle. Thank you so much for being such a lovely girlfriend.”

Danielle rolled her eyes and walked away, leaving Sean to stay with the couple. He cleared his throat and look at Skye, “so… You two… You’re actually real now.”

“Crazy, right?” Skye laughed. 

Sean nodded and glanced at Ben quickly, “well, keep up the good work guys, a good relationship takes two to tango.”

Once Sean walked off Ben looked down to Skye, “ironic he says that when he’s in a relationship with Danielle, neither of them seem to be having a good time.”

“They should just break up,” Skye commented, “it can’t be healthy, not wanting to be together.”

“They seem to enjoy the toxicity, I mean it’s good for them as long as they’re having sex.”

“Danielle doesn’t enjoy their sex though?”

“Well perhaps for her it’s more about having some arm candy,” Ben rolled her eyes, “not surprising knowing her.”

Skye shrugged, “fair enough I guess.”


	12. Something He'll Regret (S1/E4/P3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaylee gets Lori to tell the truth to Noah, knowing she can't let him go clueless to the situation. Meanwhile, Sean and Danielle get some alone time, as do Ben and Skye, both relationships are changed that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER INVOLVES DRUG USE AND SEXUAL INTERACTIONS - SOME BEING NON-CONSENSUAL.

It was a few hours into the party, Kaylee had managed to find Lori, smiling as she got to the girl, “so, you’re going to tell Noah the truth, right,” Kaylee gestured to some of the camera crew that were set up around the party, “you’ve got this chance Lori, and… I really believe you’re making the right choice.”

Lori nodded and held the glass with two hands, “I know, Hannah is up for it too. Kaylee I won’t let you down, I promise.”

Kaylee nodded and looked down at her almost empty glass of juice, “when?”

“I’ll… I’ll do it now!” Lori quickly smiled, “here,” she passed the glass to Kaylee, “hold this, I’ll be right back!”

“Awesome,” Kaylee smiled to the girl and watched her leave.

Lori rushed off, in the direction of Noah, she found him in the middle of the living room, and when she got to him she placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and offered a smile, “hey there!” He cheered, “I knew I’d find you eventually.”

“I have to tell you something…”

“Go ahead,” Noah smiled brightly to the girl, “whatever you’ve got to say… Just say it.”

“Okay well…”

“Well?”

Lori sighed, she looked over to a member of the camera crew that was nearby, they quickly focused the camera on her, “look, everything that was… happening between us.”

“Yeah?” Noah let a small smile show on his face, “us…”

“It’s uh… It was just for the cameras!”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, Kaylee told me I should tell you, it’s all just a lie! It’s not real, it never was.”

Noah looked past Lori, over to Kaylee who was watching the conversation, “Kaylee told you to say that?” Lori nodded and Noah crossed his arms, “of course she did,” he let out a sigh, “right well, great…” He cleared his throat, “I suppose it’s the same with Hannah?”

Lori nodded once again, “I’m sorry, Noah.”

“It’s fine,” he mumbled, even though it clearly wasn’t fine, he placed his drink on the table nearby, “I’m… I’m going to go, uh… Thanks, I guess,” he whispered and walked past Lori, as he made his way to the exit, Kaylee turned to talk to him but he only ignored her. Lori rushed to Kaylee’s side and frowned.

“I think he’s going home.”

Kaylee pressed her lips together, “I think he hates me…”

* * * * *  
Ana and Sean had emerged into the party after a short while of them both being absent, and they both were shrieking the words to a High School Musical song. Danielle sighed, she remembered the pair had been good friends, but it had been for the wrong reasons in the past – she hoped they were past that now. 

“I’m going to go find Ben,” Ana cheered loudly as they stopped in front of Danielle, “I… I want to talk to him about something.”

“Going to try win him back?” Danielle taunted as she pulled a face.

Ana shrugged, “I just want to tell him something, that’s all.”

Danielle nodded slowly, Ana quickly ran off, Danielle then turned to Sean and offered him a smile, hoping he was in sober state, or at least only drunk form the alcohol, Sean moved close to Danielle and placed a hand on her waist, “so, why don’t you and I…” he pulled her closer and whispered into her ear, “head somewhere else? Hm?”

Danielle looked around at the partygoers and then back to Sean, “I suppose we could go to my room,” she pressed her lips together, she really hoped Sean wasn’t high – but she couldn’t exactly figure out whether he was or not. 

They found their way through the drunken crowds and through to Danielle’s room, and it wasn’t long until they were lying on her bed. Sean pressed several kisses against Danielle’s lips, he was laughing quietly but Danielle only found discomfort whilst she tried to figure out what was going on with him. She pushed him back slightly and looked into his eyes.

There was her answer. He was definitely high – it must have been when he had snuck off with Ana earlier. Sean probably felt like a celebrity with the girls who followed him, so no wonder he felt the need to do a line of cocaine. It wasn’t attractive and Danielle hated it. 

Sean dived down again, clearly ignorant of her discomfort, she turned her head away and his lips landed on her cheek. 

“Danielle,” he whispered as he pulled up slightly, “I think we,” he placed a hand underneath her skirt, letting it settle on her thigh, “we should do it, hm? Come on, I promise I’ll make it good,” he chuckled mischievously and slowly slid his hand up closer and closer to-

“Stop,” Danielle whispered, reaching to grab his wrist.

“Baby,” Sean pouted briefly, but her then slipped his hand out of her grip, he managed to get his lips on hers again, it was sloppy and one-sided. Sean had unzipped his jeans and pushed up the skirt of Danielle’s dress, she protested but it only went ignored, instead it turned into quiet crying – he had never been like this when he was high before, she was glad, because this was horrible.

There was no warning, no preparation, Sean just decided to start – he pushed himself in. Danielle gasped loudly at the feeling, she closed her eyes – she had never felt anything like it before, and she hated it. She let out a weak squeal and then whacked her hands against Sean.

“Sean, stop, get off of me!” She pleaded, still hitting him, “get off!”

It wasn’t like anyone in the party would hear her shouts – the music was too loud for that, she hit his chest again, and again, and again…

“Stop it!” He yelled, grabbing both off her wrists and staring down at her. His expression quickly shifted from the burst of anger to a pitiful look – but his grip on her wrists only tightened, Sean had a tight grip and Danielle’s focus was on the pain going through her wrists at that moment. “Baby, you’re okay,” he whispered, “come on, just this one time, please. I need this, I need the release, I need you, I need to be-“

“I need you to stop,” she quickly responded, “please, y-you’re hurting me.”

Sean pulled a face, his grip remaining tight on her wrists, “don’t you love me?”

“I love you, but you d-don’t love me,” she tried to steady her breathing as she spoke.

Sean looked dumbstruck for a moment, he suddenly pulled back from her and then jumped off of the bed, zipping up his jeans before running out of the room.

Danielle took in a deep, shaky breath as she rolled onto her side. She pulled her legs up, and slowly held her hands against her chest – she couldn’t shake the ghostly feeling of his hands around her wrists. It wasn’t Sean, she knew him, she knew he wouldn’t do something like that if he was sober, but he had still done it. She felt horrible, with no clue what to do, there was a twisted feeling in her stomach and her breathing became fast – she closed her eyes in an attempt of stopping tears, it was impossible.

Nobody could know about that, they’d all say terrible things about her, they’d probably spread horrible rumours behind her back. She gently held onto one of her wrists whilst tears fell down her face, Sean would forget this ever happened, it would be a blank memory. She took a deep breath and dug her head deeper into her pillow, she pulled the quilt up over her head and did her best to be comfortable. She needed to drown out the rest of the world and remain in a happy place – but that would be difficult.

* * * * *

Skye and Ben had finally got to an empty room, Danielle’s guest room. Ben smiled as he looked down at her, he seemed happy to have her, and she only grinned back. They were both glad to be with each other, and to be alone. They could hear the bass of the music playing below, but other than that it was just them in the quiet space. Ben’s hands were on Skye’s waist and he slowly leaned in to press a kiss against her lips, Skye kissed back, clearly eager to have the boy to herself. She finally had him, there was nobody else in the room, nobody to interrupt.

A knock at the door proved Skye wrong.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She shrieked, pulling away from Ben and dramatically falling onto the bed, Ben smiled to her and moved to the door, he opened it and looked at the person who had knocked.

“Ana, uh… What do you- Skye and I were just-“

“I need to talk to you,” Ana frowned, “please Ben, please.”

“I…” Ben looked around to Skye who was raising an eyebrow at him.

“Go ahead,” Skye shrugged, she jumped up from the bed, “I think I’m going to go down a few more drinks,” she joked quickly, “may as well get wasted if people are going to stop me having sex all the time.”

Ben offered Skye a smile, and she returned one quickly before leaving the room. Ana entered, keeping her eyes on Ben, “I… wanted to talk to you about us, Ben.”

“About us? There’s nothing about us, Ana, not anymore. I’m with Skye now!”

Ana shrugged and closed the door behind her, she leaned back against it, “you and I, Ben… We’re meant to be, you know that.”

Ben shook his head, “don’t-“

“I’m pregnant, Ben!” Ana yelped, staring at him with wide eyes, she quickly placed her hands over her stomach, “I’m… Pregnant.”

Ben stared at her, he was in shock for a moment but slowly he began to smile. Ana’s face changed to one of excitement when Ben smiled, he let out a quick laugh, “that’s uh… That’s funny,” He snorted out a laugh and rolled his eyes, “I’m not stupid Ana,” his expression dropped, “considering you’ve been drinking all night, oh yeah, you’re really pregnant,” he shook his head, “you’re so… I can’t believe you,” he let out a scoff, “we broke up for a reason Ana. We were toxic together.”

“Ben, I-“

“You want me back because I’ve found someone else, sorry Ana, I’m not falling it.”

“Fine,” Ana whispered, she placed her hand on Ben’s chest, “but how about…” she ran her hand down Ben’s torso towards his crotch, “we go for it, one last time, you know that it was the best part of our relationship,” she unbuttoned his jeans and began to play with the zipper.

“Get off,” Ben hissed, pulling away from her, “what part of ‘I have a girlfriend’ do you not understand?”

“One time, Ben,” Ana stepped towards him, “come on, baby.”

“Get out, Ana!” Ben pointed to the door, “now!”

Ana stared at him for a moment, she then rolled her eyes, “fine, I can do better than you anyway,” she untied her hair and ran her hands through it, ruffling it up. She let out quick bitter laugh, “that girl of yours,” she wiped her hand against her lips, smudging her red lipstick, “does she… get jealous easily?”

“What?” Ben pulled a face. Ana reached up and rubbed her hand against Ben’s neck, and then she moved it up to his jaw, Ben pulled back and glared at her, “God, Ana, what the hell is wrong with you right now? You’re pissed.”

Ana turned away and finally left the room. Ben rushed to the mirror and saw the lipstick smeared along his jaw and neck, he began to rub at the lipstick, trying to get rid of it. The door opened, he looked around to see Skye leaning up against the doorframe.

“Skye-“

“Ana said that you- that she kissed you a-and… And she gave you head,” she looked down at his jeans, seeing they were unbuttoned and partially unzipped.

“No, no, she-“

“It’s fine,” she shook her head, “I’m gonna… Go back to the lodge.”

“Skye!”

Skye left the doorway and Ben tried to rush after her but once he was out in the hallway, she was already out of sight. He let out a sigh and leaned back against the wall, he’d have to explain it to her. He saw Sean come out of Danielle’s room and quickly caught his attention, Sean turned to Ben and put on a smile.

“Hey, you, how’s it going with Skye?” Sean leaned up against the wall next to Ben. 

“She uh… She just left,” Ben mumbled, “I think… I think she might think that Ana and I did stuff, but we didn’t! I don’t know what’s up with Ana, she was acting so weird…”

“Ana?” Sean let out a shrill laugh, “oh, she uh,” he squinted and held up his hand, gesturing, “she may be a li- a little- just a little bit high,” his laugh was high-pitched and he looked overjoyed by his statement.

“High?”

“Mhmm,” Sean laughed again and tapped his nose, “just a bit.”

“What the hell are you on about?” Ben glared at his friend, “w-wait, are you high too?”

Sean paused before nodding and continuing to laugh, “yeah, of course!”

“What? What do you mean of course?” Ben ordered, almost yelling at the guy, “you know what,” he tugged Sean into the guest bedroom, he practically threw Sean into the room and slammed the door behind him, he turned around and saw Sean was on the floor, looking up at him with a grin.

“If you wanted to fuck me, you could just say!”

“You’re high? What the hell, Sean?” Ben yelled, glaring down at the boy, “you’re fucking doing drugs? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Relax,” Sean laughed, standing up, “I enjoy the thrill of it, Ben, the high is so fucking go-“

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up!” Ben grabbed Sean’s shirt collar and pulled him closer, “you know how I feel about this shit? And Danielle! Does she know?”

Sean nodded, “she’s known for ages.”

Ben shook his head, “this is unbelievable,” he let go of Sean and turned away, he left the room. He’d have to find Skye and sort things out. 

* * * * *

Josh looked around the somewhat empty lodge, sighing as he leaned back against the desk, “fancy leaving one of the most popular places in the country unmanned,” he groaned and slammed his hand down on the bell, “hello?” He called out, “desperate boy here, looking for attention! Preferably from a blonde girl named Skye Hart or any attractive male,” he slammed the bell again, “anybody?”

“Josh?” Ed walked in to the reception.

“I said attractive male,” Josh hissed as he spoke up to the ceiling, he turned to Ed with a smile, “hey, Ed!”

“I’ve never felt so offended,” Ed grumbled, before letting out a laugh, “so what are you doing here?”

“I came here to surprise Skye, a few days away from home. I thought Skye would love to see me, but apparently, I missed a memo. Where is everyone?”

“Party,” Ed answered quickly, “Skye’s loving the party life now, three in a row,” he let out a laugh, “I mean I knew she enjoyed parties back in the city but three in a row is a new record.”

Ed went silent and looked up as Skye stormed into the reception area, she didn’t notice her surroundings at all and instead made her way straight to the stairs and up to her room. Josh looked to Ed and raised his eyebrows, “oh she’s clearly enjoying the parties.”

“Maybe you should uh… Go talk to her,” Ed whispered to Josh, “you know her much better than I do, and-”

“Is Skye here?”

Josh looked to the owner of the voice, Ben was stood at the doorway of the lodge looking at the pair, “ah, if it isn’t the famous Ben Evans!” He clapped his hands together and approached the boy, “I’ve been wondering when I’d meet you,” he smiled and looked the boy up and down, “and you are definitely more attractive in real life – wow.”

“Josh, right?” Ben asked the boy, he put on a small smile.

“You’d be correct!”

Ben shook Josh’s hand and looked around, “have you seen Skye?”

“She ran up to her room,” Ed answered from the desk.

“What did you do?” Josh questioned Ben, “did you hurt her? Because if you did I-“

“No! My ex lied to her about something and I need to put things right.”

“Ah,” Josh hummed, “well, when Skye’s been told something, it’s hard to get her to believe anything else. What exactly did your ex say?”

Ben let out a sigh, “she told Skye that she gave me head whilst Skye was out of the room.”

“That would explain the lipstick,” Josh nodded, pointing at the red smudge on Ben’s neck.

“She did that on purpose! Look, I’m not like that, I wouldn’t want to hurt Skye! I only just got her so what would be the point?”

Josh nodded slowly, “fair enough…”

“Ana is toxic and if she wants something she’ll make sure she gets it,” Ben crossed his arms as he looked at Skye’s friend, “can I please try speaking to Skye?”

“Ah sure,” Josh shrugged, “she doesn’t even know I’m here to be honest,” he frowned and pointed his thumb towards the stairs, “so she doesn’t really need me standing guard, go on – go sort it out, and if I have to spend my time here sorting out an upset Skye, so help me, I will hunt you down and hurt you.”

“I believe you will,” Ben nodded, he offered Josh a smile, “thank you so much.”

He rushed off towards the stairs, Josh proudly turned to Ed, “her knight in shining armour, huh?”

“Apparently, although I was certain she wanted to get with that Sean boy when she saw him,” Ed rolled his eyes, “she moves quicker than a cheetah.”

“But at least you know she won’t be a cheater,” Josh joked, with a small smile, “I’ll catch her tomorrow morning, she’s obviously going to be spending some quality time with Ben,” Josh raised his eyebrows suggestively.

“What do you mean?” Ed looking to the boy with sudden fear, Josh shrugged and walked away from Ed, leaving the man alone by the desk, “Josh? Josh! What does that mean?”

* * * * *

Ben opened the door to Skye’s room, luckily it wasn’t locked. He walked inside and quietly called Skye’s name, the girl poked her head the wall so she could see the door.

“Ben” she stepped out when she saw him, she was already dressed in her pyjamas, clearly just about to go to bed for the night. 

“Look, Skye, what Ana told you – she was lying, I’m not that kind of person. I would never do that to someone! Not you, you’re special, Skye. I like you. I want to be with you.”

Skye crossed her arms, “nice lipstick,” she rolled her eyes and turned away. Ben placed his hand on his neck and sighed as he rushed after the girl.

“Ana did this on purpose, she wants us to break up so she can get back with me. I don’t want that toxic relationship again, I looked after her when she needed it, but we argued so much. We called each other horrible names. We fought, we were violent… With you, it won’t be like that.”

Skye pressed her lips together and took a moment before speaking again, “I don’t know Ben…”

“We weren’t even alone long enough for her to give me head,” he let out a quick laugh, “she was trying to get you, trying to hurt you. Please, Skye, please believe me.”

Skye couldn’t hide the smile that began show, “I believe you,” she whispered, she held her arms out and Ben quickly made his way over to her to pull her into a hug, “so does this mean you’re going to join me in bed tonight?”

Ben grabbed Skye’s hands and nodded slowly, “if you’re okay with that?”

Skye grinned and tugged him towards her bed, “I’m perfectly okay with that.”

Ben laughed loudly as he followed the girl to her bed, the pair of them were both happy with this moment. They felt like they needed each other that night, and they’d be able to have each other.


	13. Winning (S1/E5/P1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye is excited when she finds out her best friend is visiting from the city, and she takes him along to watch Ben and Sean compete. Meanwhile, Kaylee and Noah look out for potential musicians to help with the show.

Skye tied up her hair as she left her room, Ben was still peacefully asleep in her bed, but she couldn’t bring herself to wake him up – she knew he had a qualifier race later that day, he needed a rest. She was surprised when she came face to face with somebody, she jumped to begin with but she then noticed who it was.

“Josh!”

“Morning Skye, as usual, we have the same wake up time,” Josh laughed playfully, Skye quickly rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him, “yeah, I suppose it is nice to see me, huh?”

“I missed you so much! What are you doing here?”

“Here to visit you, isn’t it obvious?”

“Well… I mean… Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I tried to,” Josh crossed his arms, “your boy drama was more important, even last night, you ran right past me and didn’t even notice.”

“What?”

“I’ve been here all night,” Josh tutted, “but your drama with Ben was more important than me.”

“Josh, I’m so sorry!”

“That’s okay,” Josh laughed, he looked around Skye, “so, how did it go with Ben? Did you make up? Did you f-“

“Hi dad!” Skye quickly called when she noticed Ed behind Josh. Josh turned around and innocently waved to Skye’s father who waved back before making his way down the stairs, Skye looked at Josh, “no, we didn’t fuck. We cuddled, and kissed, we got a little bit hands-on but we didn’t go all the way.”

“Pity,” Josh groaned, “he’s even more attractive in person,” he nudged Skye playfully, “he looks like he’d be good in bed.”

Skye hit Josh’s shoulder, “the boys have a race later today, Sean and Ben, that is.”

“Well I guessed,” Josh nodded slowly, “and that means?”

“That means that I’m going to the race, you want to come with? We can make a day of it!”

“Day at the races,” Josh cheered, “I’ll be there, and I look forward to it!”

“Great,” Skye squealed, “I’ll come get you in a bit, I have to talk to Christina about something.” Skye quickly rushed off from Josh and down the stairs, in the lobby Christina was welcoming many people into the Lodge, “what’s going on?” She asked curiously.

“We are holding auditions, since the first music night was such a hit, we figured we’d have another one, to get the views.”

“Oh,” Skye watched the hopeful auditionees, “I mean… The first music night was the first episode – pretty sure that’s not gr-” She was cut off by Christina. 

“I need you to watch the auditions with me,” Christina smiled to her.

“I can’t! I’ve got to watch Ben’s race today,” Skye instantly refused, “sorry but…” She looked around, seeing Kaylee at the reception desk, then over to the stage where Noah was setting up for the auditions, Kaylee had sent Skye a text saying that Noah hadn’t replied to her messages after the party – if there was anything that was going to sort them out again, it would be working together, “ask Kaylee and Noah, they’re both far more knowledgeable with music than I am!”

“Great thinking,” Christina nodded, “I’ll get them to help, you enjoy the race! Let me know if anything interesting happens.”

“I will,” Skye nodded slowly, knowing she probably wouldn’t tell Christina anything. 

* * * * * 

It was later in the afternoon, Ben had already left to go prepare for the qualifiers, Skye waited for Josh in the reception. She had seen Kaylee and Noah setting up for the auditions together, but they still hadn’t spoken very much at all. She flashed a smile to Josh, “those two are so complicated.”

“Oh yes, and you yourself are not,” Josh commented drily, “they’ll get along again soon, I’m sure. We need to be off, if you want to see your boyfriend in the race, that is.”

“Of course I do,” Skye looked around for her dad, but when she couldn’t see him around she shrugged and pulled on her jacket, “let’ just get going.”

Skye and Josh rushed out of the lodge and began making their way towards the race where they’d be supporting Ben and Sean. As they walked, Josh looked to Skye with a small grin, “so, you and Ben got hands on last night – how so?”

Skye looked to her best friend and rolled her eyes, “you know what I mean,” she bumped into him and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, “it was… A really, heavy makeout session. Perhaps we both had a good time,” she alluded, beginning to grin again, “I mean, his fingers were involved but they didn’t actually… Go in, you know? Mostly just-“

“Oh my god, he stimulated your-”

“Yes,” Skye giggled, “and I helped to sort him out, you have no idea how good it felt. Just both of us moaning and laughing, oh my God. I think I have a new found love for sexual acts, like when I get off, it’s amazing. I’ve done it myself, obviously, but another person doing it for me was so much better.”

“You really think I don’t know what it feels like?” Josh tutted, “Skye, I’m offended. But you’re right, soon though, soon. I’ll get my man. I can’t believe you finally found a guy that gives you an orgasm, good on you Skye Hart.”

Skye pressed her lips together as she smiled, “he’s so… So good.”

“But you wonder what life would be like with Sean, don’t you?”

“Sometimes,” Skye admitted, “but things are still starting out, I’ll get rid of all my doubts soon.”

“Good, because doubts lead to an unhealthy relationship, and I want you to be as happy as you can be.”

“Thank you, Josh,” she grabbed the boy’s hand as they approached the area of the bike race, “let’s go find them!”

“I think I can already see them,” Josh pointed to two boys, one in green and one in red, “both good looking, just wait until they get sweaty after the race,” Josh made a small growling sound, making Skye shriek with laughter before pushing Josh slightly. 

“Come on,” Skye whispered, they then both made their way to the boys. Ben spotted Skye and quickly wrapped an arm around her before kissing her, their kiss was easily casual. Ben pulled back, keeping an arm around Skye’s waist.

“Ah, if it isn’t Josh again.”

“Hey,” Josh waved to Ben. He then turned to Sean and raised an eyebrow, “I’ve been told you have a girlfriend too, right? I mean, it’s a pity,” he tutted and faked a pout, “me and you could have been a great match.”

Sean let out a chuckle, “well my girlfriend isn’t coming to the race today, so you can always be my boyfriend for the day,” he joked in a weak tone.

Before Josh could respond, Skye spoke up, “wait, Danielle isn’t coming? “

“She hates bikes,” Ben shrugged, “I mean really,” he looked to Sean quickly, “were you actually expecting her to stand in dirt watching you work your legs for 4 minutes? Why do that when she can lay in bed, thinking about your elegant jawline, probably finge-”

“Uh-uh,” Sean shook his head, “Danielle doesn’t finger herself, I mean come on – like she’s going to use her own hands in her own area. She’s princess ’keep it clean’.”

“Maybe she’s wearing rubber gloves,” Ben snorted out a laugh, “oh God, Danielle Clarke in bright yellow rubber gloves just so she can get off. “

“Ben,” Sean punched his best friend in the shoulder, “stop it,” he let out a loud laugh, “if Danielle wants to play with herself with bright yellow rubber gloves, then so be it. I mean, between you and me, I’m pretty sure she fakes orgasms with me.”

“That’s not really something to be proud of,” Ben whispered as though Josh and Skye wouldn’t hear, even though he knew they would. 

The boys were called to the race, and Skye made sure to kiss Ben on the lips for good luck before they left to get ready, Sean smiled to Skye as he passed her. Josh raised an eyebrow to Skye, “they literally both want to fuck you.”

“Josh!”

“Sean 100% looked at your legs like he wanted your thighs either side of his head. Ben looked like he wanted to lift you up and fu-”

“Josh,” Skye looked at her best friend, “stop it.”

“You should have a threesome.”

“Josh!”

“I’m sorry,” Josh let out a high-pitched laugh, “but really Skye, get in there.”

Skye rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out of her pocket, “I’m going to call Danielle, just… I just want to try get her here, it’s the most I can do for Sean.”

“Alright then,” Josh shrugged, “but why do that when you could have him all to yourself?”

“I’ve got Ben.”

“Get all the D you can, Skye. Vitamin D. Sunny D. Ben’s D. Sean’s D.”

Skye held up a hand as she dialled Danielle’s number, the call was answered quite quickly – a tired sounding Danielle was on the other end.

“Hello?”

“Danielle! Hi, it’s Skye.”

“I know, there’s a thing called caller ID.”

“Right, listen, I’m at the regional qualifiers… I was wondering why you’re not here supporting Sean.”

Danielle groaned, “I’m not exactly in the mood,” she spoke in a soft tone, “and I don’t enjoy watching boys on bikes.”

“It would mean a lot to Sean if you came, he seemed upset that you weren’t here.”

Danielle hummed quietly, “really?”

“Yes.”

Danielle let out a sigh, “I doubt that was the case, he’s probably just hungover… or coming down from the,” she paused and cleared her throat, “I don’t think he wants me there.”

“Danielle,” Skye spoke softly, hoping to change Danielle’s mind, “you mean a lot to him, please, please show up.”

“Ugh, I’ll think about it,” Danielle replied, still sounding soft and quiet.

“Thank you!”

~ 

As Sean and Ben were walking towards the start of the track, Ben looked to his best friend with a concerned expression, “you’re lucky this isn’t fully professional, you know.”

“What? Why?”

“They’d do a drug test,” Ben narrowed his eyes as he leaned in to whisper, “and you’d fail it.”

“Ben…”

“I’m not happy about it, Sean,” he hissed, “but I’m not going to tell anyone. Because even if I’m disappointed and disgusted,” he looked ahead, continuing to walk as he spoke, “I’m a good person, and I’m not going to start telling people about your issues.”

“Thanks.”

“But you need to get yourself sorted out,” Ben whispered again, more harshly this time, “because at some point, it’s all going to come back and hit you in the face. I won’t be there to pick you up.”

Sean nodded slowly, “I’ll be okay, Ben. I’m good.”

“How long?”

“Hm?”

“How long have you been doing drugs, Sean?”

Sean shrugged, “I don’t know, I don’t keep track. Hey, it’s not like I do it all the time!”

“When did you start?”

Sean stayed quiet, he knew when it started, but he didn’t really want to say.

Ben stopped walking, making Sean turn back to him curiously after taking a few more steps forward, “when we were 15, you and Jess disappeared for a while, before the bike race,” he cocked his head to the side, “you came back just before the race… And you lost. You both went off track, you were both terrible. Something was off, you two were meant to be the best ones in the race. You were both high, weren’t you? At 15!”

“It’s not that big of a deal, Ben, that race was ages ago.”

“And you’re still getting high!” Ben snapped, glaring at his best friend, “God, you’re so fucking stupid, you know that? Marijuana? Maybe I would have been okay with that, but you’re doing cocaine. My aunt lost everything because she was addicted to cocaine, I mean she even lost her own fucking life, Sean.”

“Ben-”

“And you knew about her, Sean. You knew how I feel about this shit, yet you still get yourself fucked up like this,” he looked around, making sure none of the other riders were listening, “sort yourself out. Don’t be a fucking liability to me, your friends, your family, and your girlfriend.” He paused again, narrowing his eyes, “does Danielle do it too?”

“No,” Sean answered quickly, “no she doesn’t, she doesn’t like that I do.”

“Then sort your fucking shit out,” Ben snapped, Sean stared at his best friend for a moment before speeding up and walking ahead of Ben. Ben stopped walking so he could take a moment to steady his breathing, he wasn’t happy, and he knew that things would be hard for Sean but he was so hurt that Sean would be doing this kind of thing. 

The other competitors had started down the tracks, Ben didn’t want to speak to Sean now, he needed to stay calm for the race. He could see Sean look over to him several times but he stayed focused on his breathing, preparing himself for the track ahead. 

~

Kaylee and Noah sat at a table, watching bad act after bad act audition, Noah stretched his arms out after another unsuccessful act, “at least we know if this were Britain’s Got Talent, people would love to watch.”

“Well, we’re actually trying to host a successful concert,” Kaylee let out a sigh, “how are we meant to find talent when we’re just having awful audition.”

Noah shrugged, he offered Kaylee a smile, “you should do it, you’re talented enough for it.”

“No way,” Kaylee snorted out a laugh, “you know performing gives me anxiety.”

“You’re wonderful at what you do,” Noah leaned over to Kaylee, “the best singer I know.”

“Noah, you talk to, like, five people. That’s hardly a compliment.”

Noah smiled to Kaylee, “I’m sorry about last night, by the way. That I left. Lori sent me a message explaining the whole thing, that Christine set her up and stuff… I’m sorry for just… ditching you because of Lori. That was wrong of me.”

“I forgive you,” Kaylee whispered, a smile showing on her face, “it would be weird, cutting off our friendship just like that.”

“I could never stay mad at you,” Noah grinned, placing his hand on Kaylee’s back, they both looked at each other – stunned. Noah leaned slightly closer to Kaylee, wanting to tell her how he felt about her, how she made him feel, but they were interrupted when Christina walked into the room.

“I’ve got fantastic news!”

“Oh?” Kaylee looked up at the producer, breaking the eye contact with Noah.

“I’ve got a band coming in to audition, these boys will blow you away! They were actually featured on the first season of My Amazing Life! Did either of you watch it?”

Noah and Kaylee both shook their heads innocently.

“Well, they’re called Deer In Headlights, I think you’ll enjoy their music very much. Plus, bringing back an old favourite will do good for publicity!”

“So, you’ve already decided who we’re going to have?” Noah raised his eyebrows, “what’s the point of us sitting here through some awful acts then?”

“I was just trying to get confirmation,” Christina tutted, she tilted her head and looked at them both with wide eyes, “I promise, this wasn’t all for nothing.”

“Feels like it was,” Noah mumbled, he leaned back in his seat, “so are you going to tell us about this band?”

“Right, so their lead singer – Oz, was our chosen subject for the series, he was seventeen at the time and showing us the tale of being in a band and striving for success.”

“At the time, so he’s like… 22 now?”

“23,” Christina furrowed her brows.

“But this is your fifth season? I thought you did this yearly.”

“We skipped a year,” Christina waved a hand, “thought we were going to be axed, but by popular demand we came back, and the viewers are loving it.”

Noah nodded slowly and rolled his eyes, Kaylee flashed him a smile, “Noah, a good band might be great for the North Star! Christina’s got a point, think of the publicity!”

Noah rolled his eyes, “fine, we may as well check them out.”

“Oh, I guarantee you’ll be doing that,” Christina joked, looking to Kaylee as she stood up from her seat. She rushed out of the room, Noah and Kaylee shared a look. 

“What?” Kaylee asked defensively.

“Christina’s been planning this, she must have.”

Kaylee shrugged, “well, at least we got out of cleaning rooms!”


	14. The Cheaters and The Deer (S1/E5/P2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean and Skye act on their impulses after Sean's loss at the bike race, unbeknownst to them, somebody sees everything that happened between them. Meanwhile, Kaylee and Noah see the final auditionee and Kaylee is instantly infatuated with them whilst Noah is uncertain of Christina's goal.

Sean looked at the track ahead, taking a deep breath as he tried to focus. He glanced back over his shoulder and could see Ben trying to keep himself focused. In times like this, Ben would often give him a smile or a thumbs up, and it would give him that little boost – this time, however, Ben was ignoring him, clearly mad about the revelation. 

Sean then went back to focusing on the track, breathing as he was counted in to start. Then the horn blared and he quickly began down the hill, he had spent years practicing for this, he had done it before, he could do it again. He found it easy to begin with, over bumps, through the mud, easily jumping when he needed to. Suddenly, half way down the track, his head began to throb, the most pain he had felt in a while. He let go with one hand to bring it up to his head, he squinted his eyes as he felt the pain – which of course wasn’t the best thing to have done. He lost control of his bike, falling off halfway down the track. He felt his arm underneath him, hitting a sharp edge of a rock. It didn’t break, but it stung. His ankle felt as though it had twisted as he hit the ground. He let out a grunt before slowly pushing himself up.

The crowd around the area were all looking at him in shock, surprised to see that he had fallen only halfway through the track. He picked up his bike, but he wasn’t able to get back on it as the handlebars had twisted.

In defeat, he somewhat limped off of the track and began making his way to the end – he was a disappointment, a failure. An absolute embarrassment. He didn’t look back, he shrugged off the members of the crowd who asked if he was okay. Of course he wasn’t okay, why would they ask if he was? 

At the top of the track, Ben was preparing, he had seen Sean’s fall on the screen and he knew it would probably have been to do with their previous conversation. However, he couldn’t let Sean’s fall stop him, he took in a deep breath and closed his eyes to remain calm. The countdown for his start began and he opened his eyes again and gripped his handlebars, leaning forward, ready to begin. 

When the horn blared he made his way down the track, staying focused on the bumps and turns to come. He managed to jump easily when he needed to, quick turns and easy skids. He was at the finish line in no time. He pulled his brakes and dropped his bike, quickly pulling off his helmet as he was greeted by a crowd waiting by the finish line. He hugged some people he had spoken to before, and was happy to see Skye waiting for him. 

“Hey,” he grinned, passing some of the crowd to pick Skye up, he pressed his lips against hers and let out a quick laugh, “third place in the time,” Ben happily announced to her.

“You’ll be going through to the regionals!” 

“Yes,” Ben whispered, “well as long as nobody beats my time, so let’s not get too happy.”

“I think you’re still in for a little reward tonight.”

Ben raised an eyebrow, “well, if that’s the case, then I’ll be proud to be a champion,” he leaned in and kissed her again. He pulled back and looked around, “have you seen Sean?”

Skye shook her head, “no… But I’ll look for him1 Make sure he’s okay after that fall.”

“Thanks,” Ben whispered, “I’ll be stuck here with the… Fans.”

“Alright,” Skye kissed Ben on the cheek and turned away. Josh raised his eyebrows, deciding not to follow Skye, and instead he stayed in the crowded area with Ben and the ‘fans’.

* * * * * 

The trio walked into the room, guitar and bass in hands. One of the boys had a Cajon in his hands, clearly they were ready for the audition – but was it an audition if Christina guaranteed them a place? 

“Hey,” the man with the guitar nodded to Kaylee and Noah, well, mostly to Kaylee, “we’re Deer In Headlights, perhaps you’ve heard of us?”

“Nope,” Noah answered with a grin on his face, “never.”

The man shrugged and stood up behind the mic they had set up, “I’m Oz, and this is Teddy and Rufus.”

Kaylee leaned forward, resting on her hand. Noah looked at the girl, noting her dream-like expression, he furrowed his brow and leaned back in his chair. It was odd seeing Kaylee look at a man like this, how did she seem to find him attractive? He looked like an absolute… Noah stopped his own thoughts as the band began to play their music. Kaylee seemed even more hypnotised with each chord, but Noah just became more bored as the time went past. 

By the end of the band’s song, Kaylee had a big smile on her face.

“I think that was perfect.”

“You know,” Noah looked at Oz and his band as he leaned towards Kaylee, “we could just get the yodelling Walmart kid.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Kaylee whispered in a hissing tone, “Deer In Headlights is perfect.”

~

Skye found Sean sat alone in one of the registration tents, none of the staff were around so Sean was seeming to use the lonely area to wallow in self-pity. She approached him slowly and sat down on the bench next to him, “hey,” she whispered, “are you alright?” She placed a hand on his back, “that fall… Looked like it hurt.”

“It did,” Sean replied quietly, “but not as much as…” He paused, “it doesn’t matter.”

“Not as much as Danielle not being here?” Skye offered kindly, wondering why the girl still hadn’t shown up.

“No, something else,” he cleared his throat and then let out a grunt, “I think I pulled something in my leg when I fell,” he placed his hand on his thigh and pulled a face, a pained expression, “fuck.”

“Oh, hey,” Skye’s hand moved from Sean’s back to his thigh, “you might just need to massage it out a little bit, let me try,” she began moving her hand, massaging Sean’s thigh, “tell me if it hurts too much.”

“It feels good,” Sean whispered, “so uh… Ben got in the top three, huh?”

“It’s not finalised yet,” Skye looked into Sean’s eyes, still massaging his thigh, “but he’s hopeful.”

Sean let out a weak laugh, “he’ll be in the final three, he’s always been way better at this stuff,” he then scoffed and spoke in a bitter tone, “Ben Evans, the champion, everyone loves Ben. They don’t all love Sean because they think he’s a prick just because he’s rich.”

“Hey,” Skye leaned slightly close to Sean, “you’re not a prick, and people who think you are can choke,” she looked into his eyes, “I think you’re just as good, just as talented as Ben.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“I mean it,” Skye was whispering, her face close to Sean’s, she had stopped massaging his thigh now and they were both looking at one another, waiting for something to happen. Finally, Sean moved forward and pressed his lips against Skye’s, she kissed back, the kiss being far more passionate and messy than kisses had been with Ben. She didn’t fight the urges she had and moved so she was straddling Sean’s lap, not breaking away from the kissing. Sean slowly and curiously played with the hem of Skye’s dress, when she didn’t pull away from it, he placed his hand on her thigh and slowly moved his hand up.

Skye then pulled away from the kiss and jumped off of Sean’s lap, “wait… No… That was…”

“Skye, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” Skye whispered, “look Sean, as much as I want to… I can’t, we’re both in relationships.”

“Skye.”

“I’m uh… I’m going to go find Josh.”

“Wait, please.”

“I’m sorry, Sean, I can’t,” Skye rushed off before Sean could say another word. Sean closed his eyes and held his head in his hands, knowing he had made a mistake, but the urge had been so strong he wished they could have gone further.

At the edge of the tent, Danielle was backing away in shock. She could barely breathe, she hid behind the side of the tent so Sean couldn’t see. After all she had done for Sean, all she had helped him through, and he found it that easy to make out with another girl, even when the other girl was his best friend’s girlfriend! She felt sick, her stomach twisting, flipping and turning. She didn’t know whether to run or fall to the floor in defeat. All she knew was that she was in pain. She needed to cry or throw up, or both. She managed to find her balance and began to run away from the scene, of course Sean would hurt her after all this time. It made sense. 

She ran for as long as she could before finally slowing, she stopped in place and looked around. She was out in the open with nobody to see her. Alone, heartbroken, and barely able to walk. She let herself fall down onto her knees in defeat. She sobbed, feeling as though she should have never fallen so deep for the boy, she should never have done as much as she had. She covered her face with her hands as she let out the sobs.

How could he do that?

How could he do that so easily?

How could Skye be okay with kissing him?

Danielle took a deep breath, looking up, feeling the cool air hit her cheeks which were now wet with tears. She asked herself one more question.

How will Ben react?

* * * * * 

Skye, Josh, and Ben returned to the lodge after the qualifiers had finally finished. Ben was holding his third place trophy proudly in his hands.

“Ah, so you placed!” Ed called out happily, “congratulations! Where’s Sean?”

Ben shrugged, “he fell during his turn,” he looked down at the trophy, “he kind of just… ran off after that.”

“Ah,” Ed nodded, he shrugged, “well at least we’ve got a champ here, huh?”

Ben laughed quietly, he turned to look at Skye who was barely making eye contact with him, once Ed’s attention turned away Ben leaned closer to Skye and kissed her on the cheek before whispering into her ear, “so what if I stayed here again tonight? A little celebration?”

Skye turned to look at Ben, “maybe,” she shrugged, her attention then went past Ben, she looked into the lounge room where a band was setting up, “depends what’s going on here,” she rushed into the lounge and looked at Kaylee for answers. 

“We’ve got our headliners,” Kaylee smiled happily, “Deer In Headlights, the focus of the show’s first season.”

“Oh wow,” Skye smiled, looking at the band that were setting up on the stage.

“Anyone else think it’s strange that they were prepared for an actual concert when all they had for the audition was an acoustic set?” Noah looked to Kaylee, “they knew they were gonna be involved from the start, what is Christina playing on us?”

“They had their van,” Kaylee whispered to Noah, “if they’ve got their gear in their van then obviously they’re going to be prepared for a show.”

“They seem like the type of guys that would ask fifteen year old girls to throw their bras on stage.”

“Noah,” Kaylee snapped to him, “I’m sure they’re not like that.”

Skye looked between the pair, pulling a face, “so you two have sorted everything out from last night, right?”

“Yeah,” Noah answered, “yeah we have.”

“Fantastic,” Skye clapped her hands together, “hey, so Ben’s through to the regionals!”

“He is?” Kaylee called out loudly, she made eye contact with the boy who was still stood in the lobby, “Ben! Our very own champion!”

“Third place doesn’t make me a champion,” Ben laughed as he welcomed Kaylee into a hug, “but I’m not against third place celebration.”

“Aren’t you lucky we’ve got a band to perform,” Kaylee pointed to the small staged area, “you’ve got your very own celebration concert, where’s Sean?”

“Sulking about his loss,” Josh stepped forward, “he lost control of his bike half way down the track.”

“More like of himself,” Ben mumbled, “we have no clue where he is, he went missing after his loss. He’s probably gone to Danielle to have pity sex or something.”

“Hope he’s got some rubber gloves,” Josh joked, calling back to an earlier conversation. Ben cackled out laughing whilst Skye tried to smile. She felt the shame and regret of kissing Sean earlier, Ben was so innocent, and he had no clue about it. He’d be so hurt if her knew, Skye couldn’t let that happen. She took a deep breath, knowing she’d be keeping the secret, it would most likely fade from her memory over time – she hoped it would anyway.

The group, bar Skye, were all actively chatting with each other about Ben’s win, but they fell silent when Sean entered. He paused near the door, catching the eyes of Skye and then quickly looking away. He put on a smile as he looked to Ben, “congratulations,” he spoke quietly, approaching his best friend, “you deserve it.”

“Thanks,” Ben answered quietly, looking Sean up and down, “where did you get to?” He gave him a suspicious stare, “staying out of trouble, I hope.”

“Yeah,” Sean cleared his throat, trying to avoid eye contact with Skye, “staying out of trouble.”

“Good,” Ben still seemed unsure of Sean, and rightly so. Sean hadn’t exactly been staying out of trouble, but Ben didn’t know that. He didn’t know that his best friend had kissed his girlfriend, and he didn’t know that she kissed back. 

The same couldn’t be said for Danielle who was struggling with the heartbreak of seeing what Sean had done, what Sean had tried to do. One thing after the other, Sean was becoming worse as the days went by. She had to get rid of him. She had to confront him. She couldn’t do it now, however, at this moment in time she was on her way back to her house, wanting to curl up in her bed and never see the light of day. 

As the band began to play their first song, Kaylee practically jumped up and down in excitement. Noah could see that the lead singer was clearly eyeing her up, but it seemed so wrong. Kaylee was seventeen, and this man was six years older. It gave Noah bad vibes, and besides the age gap… Noah liked Kaylee, he always had. Now this older man had strolled into the lodge and seemed to have captured her attention. Perhaps he should have taken the opportunity sooner, perhaps then they’d be together and happy. It could have been so much simpler than it is now. 

Kaylee subtly danced to the music whilst Noah stood with his arms crossed, unhappy to see her take such an interest in the older man. Kaylee was innocent and this guy could take advantage of her, Noah couldn’t let that happen. But he didn’t want to interfere with Kaylee’s life, she’d most likely never forgive him if he ruined something for her. He couldn’t risk that, he’d have to let things play out until it became a major concern – then he’d take action. 

Ben held onto Skye, both moving to the music, Ben’s attention was mostly on the band which meant he couldn’t see when Skye looked over to Sean every now and then. The boy would look back at her and think of what he had tried to do, and he wasn’t ashamed… In fact, he would look at her and think of the scenario had she not pulled away. At some moment, he realised that the only thing stopping Skye was her loyalty to Ben. But for Sean, his loyalty to Ben didn’t even come to mind as he touched Skye’s thighs, he thought nothing of the boy when his hand went up her skirt and he wouldn’t have thought of Ben even if he had Skye alone and naked in his bed. He wouldn’t think of Ben even if he and Skye had an ongoing affair. In all honesty, he thought, he didn’t care about how Ben would feel – he wanted Skye in that moment, and he still did. He might have been a bad friend because of that but that didn’t matter to him. He wanted Skye, and he knew that she wanted him too. He could just convince Ben to break up with Skye, then he could have her to himself, easily. Over all these thoughts he had about the couple and the possibility of having Skye, never once did he think of Danielle and how she’d feel about the situation. She didn’t exist in his current thoughts. 

When his eyes caught Skye’s once again, he nodded his head towards the direction of the basement, he wanted to be honest with her, he wanted her to know what he felt. After signalling her, he walked off towards the basement, hoping she’d follow.

“I’ve got to go sort something out,” Skye excused herself from Ben, “wait here, I won’t be long.”

Ben nodded, “if I’m not here, I’ll be in your room,” he winked and quickly pressed a kiss on her cheek. 

“Of course,” she rushed off, following the direction of Sean, she didn’t know why she was so eager to follow him, but she was, she couldn’t stay silent about what happened. After entering the basement, she shut the door behind her, contemplating leaving it unlocked but after a moment she pulled the latch – not wanting anyone to interrupt the conversation. She made her way down the steps and saw Sean sat on the sofa, clearly wound up by his thoughts on the situation. 

“Sean,” she spoke in a soft voice, “look, about the whole-”

“I want you,” Sean stood up slowly, speaking in a voice that was more of a low growl than his usual voice, “I want you,” he repeated, slightly softer, “you and I together,” he began to whisper, stepping close to Skye and placing a hand on her arm, “we’re a perfect match, Skye, I mean, you felt it, didn’t you? You wanted more.”

“Sean we were in the registration tent,” Skye answered with a small laugh, “someone could have walked by at any point.”

“And that’s all that was stopping you?” He raised his eyebrows.

Skye hesitated, “I…”

“What about Ben?”

“I mean… that too, of course.”

“You told me you wanted to.”

“I do want to, and I did when we were there… But Ben could have caught us.”

“He can’t catch us now,” Sean whispered, “I’m pretty sure I hear you lock the door.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“To,” Skye hesitated again, “to make sure nobody heard us talking about this.”

“Is that all?” Sean stepped closer to Skye, “are you sure you just didn’t want them to see us together?” He moved his hand to Skye’s waist, noting that the girl didn’t push him away, “you and I,” he whispered, “we’re a good match, Skye.”

“I know,” she whispered, “when I first saw you, when we met, I wanted you then. I wanted you so badly.”

“And now you have me,” Sean replied before pulling Skye into a kiss, and she responded – kissing him back just as passionately. His hands went around her waist and he quickly led Skye towards the sofa whilst they continued to kiss. She was less hesitant this time, more eager. Sean sat back on the sofa with Skye straddling his lap as she had before. She reached down to the bottom of his shirt as they kissed and slowly began to roll the material up, exposing Sean’s torso. They broke apart from the kiss momentarily so that Sean could get rid of the shirt. Sean played with the skirt of Skye’s dress again, pushing the material up. Skye didn’t pull back, she grabbed his hands and set them on either thigh.

She leaned in closely to his ear and whispered, “I want you, Sean, I want you now.”


	15. Instant Regrets? (S1/E5/P3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danielle had an idea to get her own back on Skye and Sean, meanwhile Sean and Skye take their actions to a further level - and Skye informs Josh of her actions with the boy.

Danielle reached her house, finding it empty as usual – her mother was probably out on some business venture. She walked into the kitchen with the intent to cook herself something to eat, but just stepping foot into the kitchen made her feel queasy, she couldn’t eat anything. She made her way up to her room and dropped her purse onto the floor, he kicked off her ballet pumps and tugged off her jacket. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun and grabbed a makeup wipe. She looked at her reflection, smeared mascara around her eyes, her lipstick smudged. She looked like a girl that had been out all night partying. She rubbed the wipe against her face, scrubbing hard even though the pressure wasn’t needed to remove the make up. She just needed to get rid of it all. She pulled off her fake eyelashes, not caring that it hurt, and then continued to scrub her foundation off. By the end of it, her face was pink from all the pressure she had put against the wipe. She took a moment to look in the mirror before letting out a low growl, frustrated by her own reflection. 

She jumped out of her seat and pulled off her shirt, she had only worn it to look good for Sean, but what was the point. She then unzipped her jeans and pushed them down, scratching her own thigh with her nails in the process. She grunted at the sting of pain but kicked the jeans off and then moved to her wardrobe. She grabbed a baggy white shirt and some loose sweatpants. She didn’t need to look good for anyone so what was the point. She pulled the new clothes on and then looked in the mirror again. She frowned, looking at herself now, she thought it was clear why Sean would treat her like he did. She pressed her lips together as she felt the tears well up in her eyes again. She covered her mouth and let out a sob as though trying not to let anyone hear – even if nobody was around. She moved over to her bed and fell onto the mattress. She knew she could just lay there for hours and not worry about the outside world. She’d be in pain the whole time, nobody really cared about Danielle – even if they said they did. Kaylee’s mind could be elsewhere, she wouldn’t want to waste her time with Danielle’s pathetic problems. Noah barely seemed to like her. Ben and Skye most definitely hated her. Josh probably didn’t care about her existence, and she was pretty sure Sean didn’t either. Sometimes, she thought even her own mother didn’t care about her. She could feel her heart breaking, it hurt. She closed her eyes and hoped she could get rid of the pain but her thoughts got the best of her and it only hurt more. She sat up again, she had to do something, something that could occupy her mind. Replaying the memories from the previous night and the news she had heard from Kaylee, she thought of the perfect remedy, the perfect distraction from her heartbreak.

She had to get a job.

* * * * *

Sean’s fingers were cold against Skye’s skin, but that made it all so much better. They were both only in their underwear, they knew they’d have to do something soon if they wanted to avoid suspicion, they couldn’t be too long. She grabbed his hands, putting them against her breasts, over her bra. 

“Are we going to do this, or what?”

Sean’s mouth curved into a smile, “let’s do it,” he moved his hands down to her underwear and began to play with the material. Pushing the material aside.

He had Skye now. He had what he wanted, and so did she. They began to kiss as Sean moved the pair of them, getting comfortable and so Skye would be comfortable. He slowly lowered Skye, inserting himself as he did. They both began to moan into their kisses. He slowly moved with Skye, making sure to be gentle with the girl. She was enjoying it, clearly, pressing her body against Sean as she moved with him. Everything just seemed to work when they were together. It was all fun for them, fun, and enjoyment. Skye was amazed, Ben had previously joked about Sean not being able to give Danielle orgasms, but Skye now realised that Ben might have been wrong. She did her best to stay quiet as she held onto Sean. She pressed kisses against his neck, muffling any sound she might make. The time seemed to pass quickly, and before they knew it, Skye was on her back, Sean holding himself up above her. Both of them were panting, trying to catch their breath and letting out small laughs. 

“You okay?” Sean whispered as he backed away.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good,” Skye smiled, she pushed herself up into sitting position, “that was… Really good.”

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Sean laughed, “guess that proves to Ben that I am good at sex after all.”

Skye shifted when she heard Ben’s name, she leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes, “Sean,” she whispered, slowly opening her eyes again, “this… This…”

“Hey, look,” Sean placed a hand on Skye’s back, “we both wanted this,” he pulled back and picked up his clothes from the floor, “and… Just so you know,” he flashed her a smile, “I don’t regret it.”

“I just,” Skye pressed her lips together, “Ben can’t find out.”

“I know.”

“I just… I think I need to just…” Skye closed her eyes, “I need to be alone,” she picked up her dress and began to pull it back on, “please.”

“Right,” Sean nodded, he hesitantly leaned in and pressed a kiss on Skye’s cheek, “I’ll let you be alone then. Sean quickly got dressed and gave Skye one last smile before making his way up the stairs, unlocking the basement door and leaving. Skye covered her eyes, realising the mistake she had made, but at the same point it felt so good to be with Sean. She wanted him again, but she couldn’t hurt Ben – but it wouldn’t hurt him if he didn’t know about it. She didn’t know how long it had been, but she heard footsteps on the stairs and quickly jumped up, straightening herself out. 

“There you are,” Josh’s voice made a smile appear on Skye’s face, “I was looking for you, and I was starting to think you never actually existed.”

“Sorry,” Skye brushed some of her hair behind her ear, Josh gave her an odd look.

“Did you get dragged through a bush or something?”

“What?”

“Your hair is a mess,” Josh tutted, “sort it out,” he let out a laugh. Skye tried to flatten out her hair, she pressed her lips together. It was clear that she was panicking but she hoped that Josh wouldn’t pick up on it. Josh approached Skye, cocking his head to the side, “what’s wrong?”

“Uh, nothing,” Skye whispered, shaking her head, “everything’s fine.”

“Skye,” Josh crossed his arms, “we’ve been friends for years, I know when you’re lying. What aren’t you telling me?”

“I… It’s nothing.”

“Skye,” Josh widened his eyes, “you’re not good at lying.”

Skye groaned and fell back down onto the sofa, “okay… So… Maybe I did something. Something bad.”

“Did you spike your dad’s drink? I won’t tell him, drunk Ed is a fun Ed.”

“No,” She covered her face with her hands and leaned forward, “something really bad, and if I tell you, you can’t let anybody know.”

“Oh, secrets!” Josh grinned as he sat next to Skye, “go on then, tell me.”

“I had sex.”

“Oh,” Josh frowned, leaning back, “that was disappointing, I was already pretty certain you and Ben had done it. Wait does this mean you were lying to me when you said it was just ha-”

“It wasn’t with Ben,” Skye whispered.

“What? So you lied about being a virgin?”

Skye shook her head, “it literally just happened,” she whispered, she looked to her best friend, “with Sean.”

“What?” Josh jumped up, “Skye! Skye, you and I have been through a lot, this… I can’t condone this, I won’t defend your actions in court.”

“Josh, please don’t joke about this,” Skye whispered, she leaned back, “I know it was wrong but… Josh… I liked it, I wanted it. And anyway, you told me to get the D!”

“I didn’t tell you to cheat! You had sex with your boyfriend’s best friend,” Josh whispered, his tone harsh, “that’s like… One of the worst things you could ever do. Where did this happen?”

Skye pointed to the sofa she was sat on, “Josh, please don’t cut me off because of this. I know it’s wrong. I’ll sort things out.”

“You have to tell Ben.”

“I can’t, I’m not even supposed to tell you.”

“Well, one day it’s going to come back and bite you in the arse,” Josh looked at the sofa, “I want to sit down, but if you and Sean have been fucking on this, I’m good to stand.”

“It was really good,” Skye whispered, “I like him.”

“Mm,” Josh rolled his eyes, “you need to sort yourself out, if this continues,” he gestured to Skye and the sofa, “I will tell Ben.”

“Josh, no. It would break his heart!”

“That wouldn’t be my fault! It would be yours,” Josh hissed, “don’t give me a lecture on breaking Ben’s heart when you’re the one that fucked his best friend.”

Skye let out a sigh and leaned back, “you’re right. I’m sorry, I’ll tell him… I’ll break up with him.”

“Good.”

“Soon,” Skye jumped up from her seat, “I’ll sort it out soon, but he’s happy right now, he’s through to regionals I can’t ruin that for him.”

“Because you’d never ruin anything for Ben,” Josh commented, he made a low growl, “ugh, I can’t believe I’m going to have to stay quiet about this.”

“I’ll sort it out.”

* * * * *

“Benjamin Evans!” 

Ben was suddenly confronted with a handheld camera in front of him, and two boys he could recognise with ease.

“Uh, hi.”

“We’re Aaron and Kyle, Youtube Sensations.”

“My brother would disagree with that,” Ben mumbled, but the boys seemed to ignore it.

“You got through to the regionals! How are you feeling?” 

“Uh, good,” Ben nodded as he awkwardly looked between the camera and the boys. 

“I guess you and your girlfriend,” the camera panned to Kyle, “that would be Skye, the girl who runs the lodge,” and then it went back to Ben again, “are celebrating tonight?”

“Uh, probably. Look, are you even going to be able to hear the audio clearly? I mean you’ve got a band playing in the background, this isn’t exactly the right kind of atmosphere-”

“Are you a youtuber?” Kyle quizzed Ben quickly, raising an eyebrow.

“No…”

“Then don’t tell us what to do,” Kyle tutted and crossed his arms, “now, we’re glad to be in the presence of a champion!”

“Yeah, okay,” Ben looked around, seeing Skye and Josh emerge from the basement, he left the two boys and made his way over to Skye, “hey you, everything sorted out?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, yeah!”

“Good,” Ben quickly kissed her on the cheek, “so, how about we get away from the crowd,” he nodded his head back to the lounge area, “I’m being harassed by two boys who think they’re famous Youtubers.”

“Aaron and Kyle.”

“Yeah,” he let out a laugh, “we could always start a celebration now?”

Skye quickly shook her head, “I’m actually… Really tired. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Ben offered a smile, “that’s perfectly fine, we’ll do it when you’re ready.”

“Thank you.”

Ben pressed a soft kiss on Skye’s lips and played with her hair, “but we can still cuddle, right?”

“Yeah, yes, of course!”

Ben playfully winked to her and then wrapped his arm around her, “shall we get going then? Start the cuddling early if you’re tired.”

Skye nodded slowly and Ben grabbed her hand, they made their way upstairs and Ben happily looked back to Skye to offer her a smile.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” she nodded slowly, “I just uh… Have a bit of a headache.”

Ben was clueless to the fact that Skye was lying, he trusted her with his whole heart in this moment, and he’d take care of her too. He placed an arm around her shoulders, “I’ll get you to bed and then get you a cup of water, yeah?”

“Yes please.”

“Alright,” Ben quickly kissed Skye on the cheek as the walked towards her room, “I hope you get better,” he whispered softly. They got into Skye’s room, and Ben let Skye sit down on her bed as he offered to get her pyjamas for her.

“It’s okay,” Skye whispered, “I’ll get them.”

“Alright,” Ben nodded, “I’ll go get your water.”

“Thank you.”

Ben rushed out of the room, running down the stairs, as he got into the reception he paused, seeing Danielle in the doorway – looking barely anything like she usually would, “ah, good to see you supporting your boyfriend at the race today,” he commented sarcastically as he went to walk past.

“Ben, wait,” Danielle spoke quietly, as though not to draw attention to herself from the crowds, “I…”

Ben looked around and approached Danielle, lowering his voice, “you knew about Sean’s addiction?”

Danielle looked up into Ben’s eyes and then nodded, “yes, I knew, and I wanted him to get out of it but-”

“You should have told me,” Ben hissed, “you really should have told me.”

“I couldn’t,” Danielle shook her head quickly, “it would destroy you two… I thought he’d tell you himself.”

“I guess he did, at last,” Ben sighed, “how long have you known?”

“Less than a year probably,” Danielle shrugged, “I don’t know… But listen, I… I need to tell you something…”

“I’ve got to get Skye a glass of water,” Ben excused himself, “we can talk later.”

“Wait, I-”

“Please,” Ben looked back to Danielle, “it can wait until tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Danielle whispered in defeat, “okay. It can wait.”

“Thanks,” Ben offered her a quick smile and then rushed through the lounge room towards the juice bar. He got a glass of water for Skye and then made his way back through the crowd.

Danielle watched Ben ascend up the stairs and she looked around to find Christina, she approached the producer and offered a smile, “Christina, hi.”

“Danielle.”

“I’ve uh… I heard about Lori leaving, are you in need of another runner? I really need a job and… Well,” she shrugged, “I know everyone here, I can really help to bring in the drama if you need it.”

“You know,” Christina hummed, cocking her head, “I suppose a little bit of help wouldn’t hurt. How much gossip do you know?”

Danielle scoffed, pretending to be more confident than she truly was, “honestly. I know enough to get the police involved, but that would probably make for a very interesting finale.”

Christina gave a grin, “welcome aboard, Danielle.”

“Thank you so much,” Danielle clapped her hands together, “you won’t regret this!”

“If you give me the drama, I’m sure I won’t,” Christina tapped her cheek with her finger as she looked the girl up and down, “I trust you.”

“That’s honestly quite surprising,” Danielle spoke in a high-pitched voice, managing to keep it steady whilst she remembered her whole situation with Sean, “not a lot of people do.”

Christina let out a small chuckle, “well of course not, seeing as you’re willing to sell the drama to the reality show, now come on, I think we need to have a little chat about this.”

Danielle nodded and began to walk alongside Christina, “I’m not giving you all the information straight away, I mean… Wouldn’t it be better if I could tempt it out of the guilty parties? Get them to confess the truth, live on camera?”

“Good thinking,” Christina grinned, “if you can work on that, I’ll be sure to get your name in the credits.”

“And so they should be,” Danielle crossed her arms, “I’ll start working on it,” she paused and then cocked her head, “oh! Do you think I should interview Ben about his little win at the bike race? I mean I find them boring but… I think it would be nice if people saw our little champion, hm?”

“You are full of great ideas today Danielle,” Christina commented, “yes, that’s perfect.”

“Great, I’ll do it first thing tomorrow! He’s looking after a sick,” she emphasised the word ‘sick’ with spite, “Skye right now.”

“Fair enough,” Christina nodded. 

Josh suddenly stopped in front of Christina, “hey, me again, Skye’s friend. I need to check something. The placement of your cameras? Are there cameras in the basement?”

Danielle raised her eyebrow, “why?”

“I,” Josh looked to Danielle, pausing to look her up and down, “well,” he cleared his throat, “alright, I went down there because I needed to sort… myself out,” he lied, but neither Danielle or Christina were wise to it, “so if you have cameras down there, I need to know.”

“We don’t,” Christina commented through her teeth, “you really did that in the basement?”

“Yes,” Josh shrugged, “I’ve done stuff in worse places.”

“Gross,” Danielle pulled a face. Josh looked to the girl and quickly put on a smile.

“You’re Danielle, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve heard about you,” Josh nodded, he cleared his throat, “I… I hope that good things happen to you.”

“Alright,” Danielle pulled a face, “okay. I mean. Sure.”

“Just… Don’t let your life revolve around a boy,” Josh whispered, he then walked away from Christina and Danielle. Danielle was stuck on the spot with a confused expression on her face. Josh’s words had seemed kind but so odd and out of place, it was as though he knew she was having issues with Sean, perhaps he did know something – and if he did, that meant that Skye would have told him. So, perhaps Skye would be willing to talk to Danielle about it after all.


	16. Best Kept Secrets (S1/E6/P1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaylee deals with a new potential love interest, Skye and Sean deal with the guilt of their previous actions - how long will the secret stay kept?

Kaylee had spent most of the night watching videos of the band, her focus drawn to the lead singer. He was attractive, confident, and flirtatious. Kaylee was eager to spend more time with him. Plus, he was talented! And if Kaylee could be in contact with a talented musician, it would probably help a lot with her songwriting and performance. 

It was the morning after, and she was feeling tired from the lack of sleep, but at the reception desk she did her best to keep awake. Jumping when the boy she had been so infatuated with slammed his hands down on the reception desk, she looked up to see a bright smile on his face.

“Ms. Kaylee Marsden,” he spoke in a soft tone, “your performance in the opening episode was amazing, by the way. You’re star material.”

“Uh, thanks,” Kaylee began to play with her hair, “you’re… Really good at performing. I get up on that stage and I’m shaking with nerves.”

“Oh, I get nervous,” Oz shrugged, “all the time, but I usually shake most of it off before a show, jumping up and down backstage, stuff like that. It usually helps.”

“I guess I should try that sometime,” she let out a nervous laugh and examined the man in front of her.

“Sex is also good,” he commented.

“What?”

“To calm my nerves,” he smirked, “sex before a show is… Great.”

“Um, okay,” Kaylee looked down at the desk, she hated this topic of conversation, but she tried to stay confident in front of the man, “well, I wouldn’t really know much about it so-”

“I can show you sometime,” he whispered, winking to her.

Kaylee’s breath hitched, she had no clue how to feel, but comfortable was definitely not the way to feel at all. She was about to speak but Noah interrupted, rushing up to the desk and looking at Kaylee with a panicked expression. 

“Kayls, we’ve got a problem, room five needs our assistance straight away!”

“Uh, right,” Kaylee followed Noah towards the staircase, but when Noah stopped at the bottom of the stairs, she frowned and looked at him with a confused expression, “there you go, no creeps are gonna get to my Kayls today.”

“ _Your_ Kayls? What are you on about?”

“He was being totally creepy with you! I saved you.”

“Noah, we were talking,” Kaylee hissed, “he’s fine.”

“He literally offered to have sex with you.”

“And?” Kaylee shrugged it off, standing her ground with Noah, “what of it?”

“Alright well, you’re repulsed by sex for a start, come on, I’m helping you out.”

“This is just like that time you stopped Milo from asking me out!”

“What? No…”

“Yes it is! You stopped him from asking me out, and then he asked _you_ to the dance instead! It was meant to be Milo and Kaylee but because of you it was Milo and Lu-”

“Don’t do it Kayls, don’t use my dead name,” Noah groaned, “look, we were younger then. I didn’t want to go to the dance with him.”

“You still did.”

Noah sighed, “he peer pressured me into it, just like that creep is doing to you. He’ll peer pressure you into sex and you’ll lose your virginity and regret it!”

“Oh, so you think I’d actually give into the pressure?” Kaylee scoffed, glaring at the boy who was once her best friend, “so what if I do? He’s nice, he’s good looking. If I want to fuck him, I will.”

“That was not Kaylee language.”

“I don’t care anymore, Noah! If you’re going to be so pathetic about me talking to a boy, then just forget we were ever friends.”

“That’s just it though,” Noah darted around her before she could leave, “he’s not a boy, he’s a man. He’s 23, six years older than you. You’re 17.”

“And the age of consent is 16,” Kaylee quickly retorted, “get over it, Noah.”

“Kayls.”

“Don’t,” Kaylee gave him a look he had never seen before. She was angry. She seemed to hate him in that moment, “I’m going to go out there and continue my conversation with him, and if it ends… Sexual, then so be it. You’re not getting in the way of my life, not again!”

She left Noah stranded at the bottom of the staircase, he felt hopeless in that moment. Had he really been an inconvenience to her life beforehand? Surely she couldn’t have meant the Milo incident, but Noah never put himself first. The only time he had was when he was figuring everything out about himself, when he was coming to terms with his new identity – surely she couldn’t have meant that…

* * * * *

Danielle walked into the lodge wearing her new crew shirt for the ‘You World’ show, and a smile on her face – she was ready to cause havoc in The Lodge. Sean stopped her in the lounge room, looking her up and down.

“This is a new look for you, jeans and a t-shirt. Where’s the short skirts and the low neckline?”

“I need to look more professional for this job,” she gave a somewhat fake smile, knowing she’d expose the boy for kissing his best friend’s girlfriend, “besides, I still look good.”

Sean nodded slowly, “yeah, it’s just a different sight.”

Danielle hummed and looked up as Skye and Ben walked into the room, “well if it isn’t the happy couple,” she greeted them with a fake ‘sweet princess’ voice, “how are you two doing today? Good? You haven’t played Monopoly yet have you? Because that just exposes the cheater in the relationship,” she spoke casually, but she could see Skye wince slightly at the word cheater, she let out a laugh, “I’m kidding, Sean cheats at Monopoly but I highly doubt he’d cheat on me,” she grinned at him, “because he knows how stupid that would be.”

“Yeah,” Sean nervously laughed, “I’ve got to…”

“Ben!” Danielle turned to the boy, “Christina said I can interview you about your win yesterday! Some material for the show, you know. People might like it if we have a hunky champion in our midst.”

“Really?” Ben gave a small smile of pride, “uh, great!” He passed the cleaning supplies he was holding to Sean, “can you help Skye out with room six?”

“Uh, what? No I-”

“Come on, Sean,” Ben patted his back, “it’s just a little bit of cleaning, don’t cry.”

Sean let out a quick laugh, Danielle linked her arm through Ben’s and took him towards the juice bar where she would film the interview. Ben pulled his arm away from her soon and looked down at her.

“You’re being weird.”

“Am I?”

“A little bit… Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m totally fine,” Danielle brushed some of her hair behind her ear, “I just… I want people to be happy, to be okay. You know?”

“Right.”

Danielle hummed and looked at the boy, “you’re really pale, you know that?”

“What?”

“Way too pale for the lights,” Danielle cocked her head to the said, “you’ll look like a ghost. I might have to put some makeup on you?”

“What? No!”

“Yes,” Danielle grinned as she pushed him down onto a chair, “it won’t be too much, just stuff to darken you a little bit, I’m sure if I use my foundation you’ll be a good shade.”

“I’d look stupid,” Ben replied quickly, “you’ve got a tan, which means you’re going to be multiple shades darker than me and I’ll look absolutely stupid.”

“I think you’d look good with a tan,” Danielle hummed, she pulled out a makeup bag and looked at the boy, pausing for a moment. Part of her was acting like this out of spite but… What had Ben done wrong? She cleared her throat and put her makeup bag on the table, “then again, I’d hate to ruin a good looking face.”

Ben was clearly trying not to smile at the compliment, “thanks, I guess?”

“I suppose we can adjust the lighting for you, to compliment your beauty.”

Ben nodded slowly and looked down at the ground, “you can stop flirting with me,” he pulled a face, “we’re both in relationships, and my relationship with Skye is going well, so… I’m not interested.”

“You were interested during the threesome,” Danielle whispered.

“We were drunk,” Ben replied, leaning forward. His face was inches away from Danielle’s and they looked into each other’s eyes, but unlike Sean and Skye there was no temptation to cheat. Ben continued speaking, “all three of us were drunk, and I was still upset about the whole Ana thing. I thought we were going to forget that night ever happened.”

“It’s hard to forget it when it was one of the best experiences,” Danielle stood up straight, she took a seat opposite Ben and sighed, “I guess I’ll never experience that again,” she went quiet as members of the crew arrived and began to set up cameras. She pushed her hair back, “well, Sean would probably be up to have one with anything that moves,” she dropped her head, “I wouldn’t want to, you know,” she looked into Ben’s eyes, “with you it was different, you were someone I could trust, someone I wanted to have the experience with.”

“Let’s stop talking about this,” Ben hissed quietly, “it’s in the past.”

“Right.”

“And nothing like that is ever going to happen again,” Ben straightened up, “as I said. I’m with Skye now, and we’re going to be loyal to each other. Nothing sordid like what happened at that party.”

“Loyal,” Danielle repeated the word with a small laugh, “I’m pretty sure Sean doesn’t know that word even exists.”

“He does.”

Danielle shook her head, “it doesn’t feel like it,” she looked into Ben’s eyes again, and spoke in honesty, “I know he’s cheated on me.”

Ben nodded, glancing to the cameras and then back to Danielle, “he regrets it, you know?”

“What?” Danielle stared at Ben in shock, did he already know about Sean and Skye? She felt her chest go heavy, but how would he think Skye loyal if he knew about them?

“He regrets cheating on you with Jess, I mean she cut him off the next day and then Sean re-”

Danielle stood up suddenly, “he cheated with Jess?” She shrieked, “that wasn’t who I was on about!”

“Oh… Oh, Danielle I-”

Danielle took a deep breath and sat down again, “you know what, let’s just get on with this interview,” she cleared her throat and the pair waited in silence whilst the cameras were being set up. 

* * * * *

As Sean followed Skye into the room, the blonde turned to him with a serious expression, “maybe you should do something else. I don’t think… Us… Being together right now is a good idea.”

Sean shrugged, “I think I can control myself for a little while,” he looked her up and down, “Skye, what happened in the basement… I don’t regret it.”

“I don’t either,” Skye admitted, she closed her eyes, “but it’s just… I don’t want to hurt Ben.”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Sean spoke in a calm tone.

Skye let out a bitter laugh and shook her head, “when Ben and I were fake dating, you told me not to fuck him over. Yet, I did. We did. We fucked him over.”

“I mean if you’re that worried about him we can always see if he wants a threesome, he’d be up for it, trust me.”

“You know, Josh made the same suggestion to me the other day before the race. Wait, how do you know Ben would be up for it?”

Sean shrugged, Skye could see the small smile on his face, “oh my God… Have you two talked about having a threesome with me?”

“No,” Sean shook his head, “just trust me… I know he’d be up for a threesome,” Sean put his cleaning supplies down and stepped closer to Skye, “I would too.”

Skye began to smile but then quickly turned away, “let’s just clean the room, get it done.”

Sean nodded and picked the cleaning supplies up again, “right, yeah,” they both moved to the different beds, but after a moment of the silence being too awkward Sean cleared his throat, “you know what, maybe I should just leave this for you to do,” he looked at her to see her confused expression, “I don’t want to get in the way or make you upset.”

“Right,” Skye nodded.

“I’ll just… Go find something to do in another part of the lodge.”

“Alright,” Skye gave him a small smile, “we’ll sort this out at some point…”

“Just,” Sean began to walk towards the door, but turned around to speak, “please don’t tell Ben about what happened in the basement,” he pressed his lips together, “he’d hate me, he’d hate us. He’d flip out and… God I don’t want to see what that would be like.”

“I won’t tell him,” Skye fiddled with her ear as she spoke, she knew she had to tell Ben something, she couldn’t keep the secret from him. She had to at least tell him about their kiss at the bike race. She had to break up with him, just as Josh told her to. But at the same time, perhaps Ben would forgive her – she liked him, she wanted to be with him, she wanted to feel his touch again. But she also wanted Sean’s.

Sean had already made his way downstairs and he slowly ventured towards the juice bar where Ben’s interview was taking place. Danielle glanced over her shoulder at Sean when he entered and she then turned back to Ben, her expression clearly one of anger.

“So Ben Evans, you qualified for the regionals!”

“Uh, yeah,” Ben nodded, letting out a small laugh.

“How does it feel? Knowing you can be successful without cheating?” She emphasised the word cheating and Ben caught her eye, knowing what game she was playing right now.

“Well, it’s uh… It’s a really good feeling, I’ve trained hard for this.”

“I bet,” Danielle offered him a quick smile, “you can tell you’ve been training hard, the muscles really show it.”

Ben pulled a face, “uh, sure.”

“So!” Danielle looked over to Sean again, pulled a face and then turned back to the boy, “how did it feel beating your best friend? Taking something that he really wanted?”

“Way to make me feel guilty,” Ben joked, “I… I do feel bad,” he glanced over to Sean who was rolling his eyes, “I mean, having something that my best friend wants so badly? It feels like I’ve stolen something from him, you know? I couldn’t do that to him.”

At this point Sean began to joke around, making rude gestures to the boy, miming sexual acts. Ben began to laugh, he then grabbed Danielle’s make up bag which had been placed on the chair near him and threw it directly at Sean.

“You’re so gross,” Ben yelped to the boy.

“My makeup is expensive,” Danielle hissed to Ben, she rushed to pick up the makeup bag, “you’re paying for anything in here that’s broken.”

“Sorry,” Ben whispered, still continuing to smile.

“Alright,” Danielle turned to the camera crew, “let’s cut it short. I’ve got to go sort through my makeup now,” she began to walk away, Sean followed her towards the reception of the lodge. He stopped her before she could leave.

“What was the point of that interview?”

“To talk to the Regional Qualifier,” Danielle looked into his eyes, “maybe if you got in the top three, you’d be getting interviewed too! But you didn’t.”

“Yeah because I fell off of my bike, you’d know if you were there,” Sean retorted quickly.

“I was there,” Danielle admitted, crossing her arms, “Skye asked me too show up, so I did. I saw you fall, but I couldn’t find you afterwards so I went home,” she was telling a small lie, but what was worse? Her little white lie? Or Sean and Skye’s lie that would cost them both their friendships and their relationships? “I’ve got to go now,” Danielle excused herself, “to check that Ben didn’t break any of my make up when he threw it at you!”

“Yeah, guess that was my fault, if you need stuff replacing, let me know.”

Danielle began to walk away, and she let out a small laugh when she was alone, “yeah,” she whispered to herself, “I need my boyfriend to be replaced.”

Danielle was about to leave the lodge when Ben caught up to her, “hey so is that really all you wanted to talk to me about? You didn’t want any more questions?”

“Chill out, it’s not like you’re Harry Styles or something,” she shrugged, “there’s not really anything else to ask.”

“Oh, right… Cool,” Ben nodded, “look I’m sorry about the makeup, it was just a natural instinct. Sean was miming blowjobs and stuff and I wanted to stop him so-”

“Sean’s pathetic,” Danielle rolled her eyes, “he’s such a child.”

“Yeah,” Ben looked around the area, checking that Sean was out of the vicinity, “look Danielle, are you okay? You said about Sean cheating and I thought you knew about Jess, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine, it just proved he’s an even bigger ass than I thought,” as they were outside the lodge, Danielle leaned back against the wall, “I need to break up with him but…”

“But?”

“The whole, addiction thing. I don’t want him to get worse… Then again, perhaps if he got rid of me his life would be better. Everybody would be better without me, wouldn’t they?”

“No,” Ben shook his head, “I mean, imagine our lives without your drama. It would be boring,” he let out a laugh.

“As long as I’m with Sean…” Danielle began to play with her hair, “I’m not going to be happy.”

“You used to be.”

Danielle was beginning to tear up, she closed her eyes and eventually let a small sob escape, “I’ve done so much for him, staying up in the middle of the night when he shows up at my doorstep, making sure he doesn’t fucking die,” she wiped the tears from her cheeks, “and what do I get in return? A boy who fucks other girls and doesn’t listen when I say no.”

“Wait what?” Ben expression changed at Danielle’s last words, “what do you mean?”

“Just,” she took a deep breath to steady herself, “the other day… The party?”

“Yeah?”

“He was high, and he was… He tried to have sex with me, but I don’t like doing it with him when he’s high! I kept saying no but he still… Like… Forced himself in and I just… I managed to stop him quite quickly but he was so angry, upset that I didn’t want it.”

“Danielle, I had no idea.”

“Obviously not,” Danielle sighed, “I want to end this stupid relationship, I don’t want to hurt anymore. My only problem is, who will look after him in the middle of the night if it’s not me?”

“Don’t put yourself in pain just to stop his,” Ben placed a hand on Danielle’s shoulder, “I know I usually call you selfish and stuff, but this time… Put yourself first.”

Danielle nodded and offered the boy a genuine smile, possibly the first genuine smile of the day, “Ben… You need to know something abo-”

“Ben!” Noah rushed out, stopping by the pair, “I need to ask you a very serious question, if a 23 year old guy is hitting on a 17 year old girl, is that weird?”

“I mean… Yeah.”

“Kaylee doesn’t think it’s weird! She’s happily flirting with this 23 year old who has literally told her he wants to fuck her!”

“Oh,” Ben pulled a face, “and she didn’t punch him in the face after that?”

“No! She said to me ‘if I want to fuck him, I will’ and it’s the least Kaylee thing I’ve heard in my entire life,” Noah then noticed Danielle, “oh, hi Danielle.”

“Hi,” Danielle replied in a quiet voice, “I’m going to go think about stuff,” she excused herself from Ben and left the two boys alone. 

“So, Kaylee thinks this guy is totally okay and stuff, but I swear he’s such a creep!”

“I guess if Kaylee wants to give it a go… It’s her life.”

“But he’s too old for her.”

“Isn’t your dad 6 years older than your mum?”

“Yeah but they met when my mum was 22, not when she was 17!”

“I mean, I suppose it is kind of weird,” Ben shook his head, “we’ll talk some sense into Kayls, I’m sure she’ll see our concerns soon enough.”

Noah let out a sigh, “I hope she does. So, uh, what was happening with you and Danielle?”

“Do you remember when Sean cheated on Danielle with Jess?”

“Oh, yeah, that.”

“Well, Danielle said she knew Sean was cheating on her, so I assumed she meant with Jess… But it turned out that she had no idea about Jess.”

“Oh God.”

“Yeah, she’s… Not in a good place right now,” Ben sighed, “I actually feel bad for her.”

“Feeling bad for Danielle, that’s definitely a new one.”


	17. Confrontation (S1/E6/P2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben's younger brother Ethan is at the lodge, waiting for Ben. His presence somehow shakes things up between Skye and Sean - and Skye decides to tell the truth. Danielle confronts Sean, knowing what happened at the bike race.

Kaylee sat on the sofa next to Oz as the older man scrolled through his Instagram feed, he looked back to the girl and offered her a quick smile, “you’re stunning, you know that?”

“Uh, what?” Kaylee choked out.

“When I saw the first episode of this series, I knew that you were something special. You’re a beautiful girl, a beautiful talented girl. Absolutely stunning from head to toe.”

“Thanks,” Kaylee answered, seeming unsure.

“I mean it, I looked at you on the screen and I just thought, ‘that girl… I want her, I want to work with her, I want to be with her’ and now I’m here,” he let out a weak laugh, “sorry if that came on too strong.”

Kaylee scrunched her nose and shook her face, “it’s totally fine… Nobody’s ever really said anything like that to me before.”

“Why not? You’re literally a stunning girl, you deserve to have men crawling at your feet begging for your love.”

Kaylee let out a nervous laugh, “I don’t think I’d like that to be honest.”

“Oh?”

“People begging for me, it’s just… I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like something to want. I don’t want it.”

“Fair enough,” Oz leaned back and stretched his arms out along the back of the seat, one of them being behind Kaylee, “so you work here every day? What’s it like?”

“It’s fun!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“How so?”

“Well, there’s always new people to meet, new personalities, like those two,” she pointed to the two brothers, “they vlog, their YouTube channel isn’t exactly successful, but they have a good time making the videos. They’re odd, fun to watch.”

“Ah, right.”

Kaylee’s attention went to the younger boy who ran into the room, “hey Kayls!” He shouted, stopping in front of her.

“Ethan,” Kaylee replied to the boy, but his attention quickly went to the two vloggers.

“Oh no, the two vlogging idiots are here,” Ethan commented, “I forgot about them,” he let out a laugh.

“They’ve provided a lot of entertainment to be honest.”

“Not on purpose I’m guessing.”

Kaylee laughed and nodded, “you’d be right. So what brings you here?”

“I’m meant to hang out here all day whilst mum and dad are out, Ben’s looking after me – I don’t get why, I mean I’m old enough to stay home alone.”

“Safety first.”

“Right,” Ethan rolled his eyes, “where is Ben?”

Kaylee shrugged, “last I saw he was rushing after Danielle to talk about something.”

“Danielle?” Ethan looked at her with a shocked expression, “what was he talking to her about? I mean like… He hates her, why would he want to talk to her?”

“I don’t know, I think some drama happened involving Danielle’s makeup?” Kaylee shrugged, “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Oh, fair enough,” Ethan looked around, “well, I’m going to go sit in the basement, can you let him know?”

“Yeah. Of course,” Kaylee nodded and watched as the boy left the room. 

Kaylee sat down again, watching Noah enter. The boy simply looked at her and Oz before rolling his eyes and leaving through the same door he came in. Kaylee didn’t care, however, she leaned back, right next to Oz. The man kept his arm around her and she slowly became more comfortable with it.

* * * * *

Sean bumped into Skye again, giving her a brief smile, “are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Skye replied, “just thinking about everything,” she cleared her throat, “Sean, the whole thing in the basement.”

“Yeah?”

“I enjoyed it,” she whispered, “I just need to wrap my head around the whole thing.”

“I know,” Sean nodded, he scanned the area to make sure that nobody was nearby, “I don’t want to hurt Ben, but… But I like you. I like you so much, Skye,” he released a weak laugh, “I can’t stop thinking about you, it’s driving me wild,” he whispered, “tell me you feel it too. The wildness. I felt so alive when we were down there, it all felt so… So…”

“Right,” Skye finished his sentence, stepping closer, “it felt right.”

Sean let out a small laugh, “yeah it did,” he looked through to the door to the basement, “perhaps we can… Do it again?”

Skye looked into the boy’s eyes, and then she began to nod, “okay, yes… Yes.”

Sean turned away and made his way towards the basement, Skye stayed back so not to cause any questions. After a moment or two she went in the same direction, heading down to the basement when nobody was looking, “alright, look,” she spoke as she locked the basement door, “this can’t take too-”

“Skye, why are you locking the door?” Sean called out in an anxious tone, she looked around to him and saw as he gestured to Ethan who was sat on the sofa mid-conversation with Sean.

“Oh… Instinct, I guess,” Skye lied, she unlocked the door and rushed down the steps, “Ethan, what are you doing here?”

“Mum’s left me in Ben’s care,” Ethan replied quickly, “though, I haven’t actually seen him yet. I thought I’d come down here and stay out of the way.”

Sean let out a fake laugh, “yeah, you’re definitely out of the way down here,” he looked over to Skye and then quickly came up with an idea, “Skye and I are looking for something, the… Oh what was it?”

“My mother’s necklace,” Skye spoke as though Sean already knew, “I left it down here the other night.”

As the pair began to fake a search, Ethan stayed on the sofa with his feet up, when he spoke, both Sean and Skye were stunned into silence, “have you had sex with my brother?”

Under his breath, Sean whispered something that went unheard by both Skye and Ethan, “depends who you’re asking.”

Skye shook her head, “no, Ethan, I haven’t.”

Ethan nodded slowly, “I think he wants to, by the way.”

“Okay…”

“Our walls are thin, sometimes I can hear him saying your name even though I know you’re not there.”

“Maybe he’s talking on the phone,” Sean offered.

“Not in this tone,” Ethan widened his eyes and let out a scoff, he then began to imitate Ben with a lower voice, “oh Skye, uh, oh.”

“Okay!” Sean clapped his hands together, “I’m uncomfortable!”

“Same,” Skye pulled a face.

“I swear he masturbates whenever he’s in his bedroom.”

“Oh my God,” Sean let out a snort of laughter, “alright, you need to start listening to music when you’re in your room to block out any noise from him.”

“Maybe he should turn on music.”

“Yeah, true,” Sean let out a laugh. Ethan began to speak about how Ben spoke about Skye most of the time and Skye zoned out – thinking about how Ben had been so happy to be around her, and how she was keeping this dark secret from him. She took a deep breath and then walked towards the stairs.

“I’ve got to go… Sort something out.”

“Okay,” Sean nodded, he looked down to his phone when a message came through, “oh, Danielle wants to see me. Perfect timing,” he ruffled Ethan’s hair as though the boy were young than he was, “nice chat.”

* * * * *

Skye found Ben outside, she grabbed his arm and offered him a smile, “hey, I need to talk to you about something important,” she nodded for him to follow her and walked towards the bench that wasn’t far from the main entrance. Ben happily followed her, a smile on his face as they walked. They sat down and Skye did her best to smile to the boy.

“Are you alright?” Ben asked as Skye’s smile faltered, “what’s wrong?”

Skye closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “I like you, I like you so much Ben. Like, you and me, we’re great together. You make me happy. You do! It’s just… I-”

“Are you breaking up with me?”

“No, I mean, I don’t know.”

“Oh,” Ben looked away from Skye, focusing down on his hands.

“Something happened,” Skye knew she had to tell him, she couldn’t keep the lie from him – but perhaps she’d cut the story short, “I did something,” she couldn’t tell him about the basement, she could never do that. She made a noise expression how hard she found the confession, “Sean and I… We… We kissed, we made out. After the race.”

“What?” Ben’s head snapped around and he glared at Skye.

“We just… Started making out, I was getting so carried away with it. I wanted to… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Ben stood up, “you made out with Sean? You just fucking thought that would be a good idea?”

“I wanted to be the one to tell you, I couldn’t let you find out some other way.”

“You shouldn’t have fucking done it in the first place!” Ben snapped, he looked around, “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

* * * * *

Danielle straightened up when she saw Sean walking up the stairs, she cleared her throat and hoped it wasn’t clear that she had been crying, “Sean,” she whispered his name when he reached the top step.

“Hey,” he offered a smile, “is everything alright?”

“Uh, yeah, kind of.”

“You’re not pregnant, are you?” Sean suddenly asked, his eyes widening. 

“No,” Danielle shook her head, “no, don’t be stupid!”

“Okay, thank God,” Sean laughed, leaning on the banister, “boy, that would have been trouble. My dad would have killed me.”

“You’re not fit to be a father anyway,” Danielle spat out, glaring at him. 

“Excuse me?” Sean cocked his head, “I’d be great father material.”

“Oh yeah,” Danielle nodded, a harsh expression took over her face, “yeah. You’d be a great fucking father. The father that does coke every other night, the father that fucks other girls, the father who makes out with his best friend’s girlfriend!”

“What?”

“I saw you,” her voice was low and her anger clear, “you and Skye at the race. I told you that I went there, and I went to your tent after your fall and surprise surprise! I see little miss Skye Hart on top of your lap sucking your face!” She let out a harsh cackle, “you’re so lucky I have a fucking heart and haven’t told Ben, he’d take a knife to your throat for being such a fucking piece of shit.”

“Danielle… Look-”

“Shut the fuck up,” Danielle snapped, “you don’t get to fucking excuse yourself, Sean. I work so hard to look after you when you show up at my house at 4am. I have to deal with you being high on coke, my mum being an alcoholic, and a dad who doesn’t give a shit if I live or die! But now? I’m fed up of it, I’m fed up of living a miserable life because of my trashy boyfriend being a fucking cunt! You make me feel like shit so often, Sean! You don’t even remember that you fucking forced yourself on me the other night! I said no, I kept saying no and you still went for it! You got pissed off at me for hitting you to make you stop! I can’t believe you, I can’t believe you at all! I can’t believe I’ve put up with this shit for so long now!”

“Danielle-”

“Shut up, don’t fucking talk to me,” she looked into his eyes, “find someone else to look after you at 4am because I’m done with you, I’m done with your fucking shit, Sean,” she turned away and began making her way down the stairs. She heard Sean hit the wall but she didn’t look back. When she was near the door, it opened making her jump. Ben stormed past her and she spun around. Several people followed. Skye, Noah, Kaylee, Ethan, Christina and Ed. 

Ben reached the bottom of the stairs and stared up at his once best friend, “you’re a fucking cunt!”


	18. A Push and a Shove (S1/E6/P3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Sean confesses even more of the secret affair, Ben is outraged and takes it out on the boy. Skye thinks back on what happened whilst Ben finds comfort in someone he never thought he would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains sexual activity

“You made out with Skye, and newsflash Sean, Skye’s my fucking girlfriend!”

Sean rolled his eyes, “announce it to the world why don’t you, you know you always did have a flare for the dramatic.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Stop it!” Skye yelled, rushing past Ben and standing between the two boys, “alright, we can sort this out another time, but right now there are guests staying here, and they-”

“Oh who fucking cares,” Ben hissed, “let them hear! Let them hear that you’re both just absolute dicks!”

“Ben!”

“Shut the fuck up,” he glared at Skye, “get out the way,” he brushed past her and made his way up the stairs closer to Sean, “I fucking trusted you, best friend? Best friend my fucking ass!”

“Alright, I admit it,” Sean rolled his eyes, “you know what? I don’t care, so what? So, Skye and I fucked, it’s probably better than anything you would have del-”

“Excuse me?” Ben narrowed his eyes and cocked his head, “you fucked?” He raised his voice and turned around to Skye, “you fucked him! You failed to mention that bit!” 

“I-”

“You’re fucking scum,” Ben hissed, close to Sean’s face and inaudible to the workers watching.

“So, what? We’re even now,” Sean whispered back, equally angered, “you fucked my girlfriend, I fucked yours.”

“The threesome is completely different,” Ben snapped in a quiet voice, “because it wasn’t behind my fucking back!” he turned to Skye, “so where did you do it, huh? Did you fuck at the bike race as well? It wouldn’t surprise me if Sean was trashy enough to fuck in public.”

“In the basement,” Skye answered, sounding weak.

“In the fucking basement!” Ben yelled, he then realised when this had occurred, “you fucking bitch,” he looked down at Skye, “you’re both so disgusting.”

“You know what,” Sean grabbed Ben, “leave her alone, pick your fight with me.”

Ben reached for Sean’s arm and pulled him around him, he let go of the boy as he stumbled backwards. Sean struggled to balance again, and his feet slipped from under him as he reached the top of the steps. Skye let out a scream of Sean’s name as the boy went tumbling backwards down the staircase. Ben didn’t even express any apologetic look as everyone seemed to grow concerned for Sean. He looked down at the group below, seeing his younger brother Ethan amongst them. Ethan looked shocked by the situation, shocked and saddened. Ben turned, knowing there was another staircase he could leave from. 

Sean was unresponsive at the bottom of the stairs, Skye was by his side immediately, hoping he’d open his eyes. Ed crouched down next to them, “we’ll call an ambulance.”

As the commotion began to focus around Sean, and everyone seemed to pity the cheaters, Danielle turned away and decided she’d be best off away from everyone else. She made it out of the front of the lodge when she caught site of Ben walking away from the building in a hurry, his hands buried in his pockets. She began to run, hoping to catch up with him. It wasn’t long until he heard her footsteps and turned to look at her.

“Danielle…”

“I’m so sorry,” Danielle broke, tears beginning to fall and her breaths turning into sobs, “I’m so so sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” somehow, Ben’s anger became calm, he let Danielle approach him, “you and me… We’re on the same level.”

Danielle let out a loud sob and covered her face, Ben placed an arm around her shoulders as they continued to walk. Danielle found the strength to speak after a few moments of crying, “I… I saw them in the tent,” she whispered, “I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Did you know about the basement?”

Danielle shook her head and let out several more loud sobs, “I had no idea, I had no...”

“Hey, hey,” Ben spoke in the same calming tone, “maybe we shouldn’t talk, yeah?” His own voice faltered, “do you want to come to mine? We can wallow in self pity together?”

Danielle nodded and leaned up against Ben. They continued to walk towards Ben’s house, Danielle had of course been there before. It was where the party had been when she, Ben, and Sean had the threesome. Along the way, Danielle could see the tears that fell down Ben’s cheeks and she held him closer whilst they walked. Neither of them deserved what they had experienced. It was weird and new that the pair of them were together, but it was nice to share the moment with someone. Neither of them deserved to be alone. 

They were at Ben’s house soon enough, Ben welcomed Danielle inside, realising his parents weren’t home and Ethan was still at the lodge. He took Danielle upstairs and made sure she was okay with being in his room. She agreed, and once they were inside she fell down onto his bed and began to sob into the pillow, “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” Ben whispered, he sat down on the bed next to Danielle and placed a hand on her shoulder, “you’re allowed to cry,” he tried to hold a smile, “and so am I.”

Danielle shuffled in the bed, making room for Ben – the boy laid down next to her and gave her a smile as they looked into each other’s eyes, silence fell over them. When Ben ran his hand down Danielle’s upper arm the girl’s breath hitched ever so slightly.

“Are you alright?” Ben suddenly asked, terrified that he might have made her uncomfortable.

“Yeah, it’s just… It reminds me about,” she brushed her hair back, “it reminds me of the threesome.”

“Oh?”

“You touched my arm like that,” she let out a quick, weak laugh, “it was just so soft and gentle and… I thought, well, I felt so happy having you caress my arm like that.”

Ben nodded, “you remember the small details, huh?”

“I remember the night very well,” Danielle whispered, “for multiple reasons.”

“Oh really?”

Danielle let out a low hum, “I… Well,” she pressed her lips together for a moment, “when we were doing it…” She chuckled again, “it was the first time I had an actual orgasm during sex.”

“What?”

Danielle laughed, and Ben joined in, “I always faked it with Sean before the threesome.”

“I knew it,” Ben announced loudly, “and afterwards?”

“There were a few times where I didn’t have to fake it,” she shrugged, “but to be honest, sometimes I was thinking of you.”

Ben raised his eyebrows, he stammered as he tried to think of what to say – eventually, the words that came out of his mouth shocked Danielle, “I’ve thought about you too,” he admitted, “whilst… Masturbating,” he cleared his throat, “before Skye came along…”

“And look at how that turned out,” Danielle commented quietly.

“Yeah,” Ben scoffed out a laugh, “we’re both in my bed, brokenhearted.”

Danielle pressed her face into the pillow and took in the scent of Ben. She let out a hum and looked over to him, “I’m so glad I don’t have to go through this alone.”

“Yeah,” Ben whispered, he brushed a strand of Danielle’s hair behind her ear, “I think,” he paused and cleared his throat, “can we,” he shuffled closed to her, out of impulse, he pressed his forehead against hers, “we should,” he never finished his sentence before he leaned in to press his lips against Danielle’s. She kissed back with ease.

Ben wrapped his arms around Danielle and held her close, Danielle placed her hands on Ben’s chest and broke away from the kiss to smile at him, “we should what?”

“Do it,” Ben replied, looking into the girl’s brown eyes, “we should do it.”

Danielle raised an eyebrow, “oh, you want to fuck me?” She let out a giggle which was laced with her own sorrow, “payback for what they did behind our backs?”

Ben groaned slightly, “nothing to do with them. Fact is,” he paused briefly, “I like to have sex when I’m angry,” he let out a quick laugh, “sometimes… Sometimes it’s amazing when it’s full of anger and emotion,” he moved his hands down to Danielle’s waist, “I think we can achieve that.”

“I’d love to,” Danielle whispered, she moved in to kiss Ben again, she then pushed him over, so she could straddle him and look down at him, “let’s do it.”

* * * * *

Sean found consciousness soon, they had immediately called for an ambulance. Skye was outside the front of the lodge as the ambulance drove away. She pressed her lips together as she thought about how this could have easily been avoided – but then she thought about how much worse it could have been if they had kept the secret… If Ben had found out another way. Would he have been driven to murder? The force of the push down the stairs was bad enough. Skye’s attention turned to Ethan as the younger boy pushed past her.

“Ethan!”

The boy turned to her, narrowing his eyes – his hatred was clear, “what do you want?” He spat out.

“I just… Can you make sure Ben’s okay?” 

Ethan rolled his eyes, “yeah sure, I’ll make sure he’s not crying over the fact the girl he was really into fucked his best friend behind his back. I’ll tell you now, he’s not going to be okay. In fact, I don’t feel safe talking to him, who knows how angry he could be. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got home and found everything in our house that can be smashed shattered on the floor in a million pieces.”

“Ethan I-”

“You what? You didn’t mean to? You didn’t mean to cheat on him? That’s pretty hard to believe.”

“Can you just let me speak?” Skye snapped, glaring at the boy.

Ethan scoffed, “no, you’re a bitch,” he turned away and began to walk, but he quickly looked back and spoke again, “he really liked you, you know? And you just went and ruined his life! Congratulations. You’re an absolute bitch.”

Skye let out a sigh as the younger boy walked away. She was surprised at his language towards her but she supposed he had done plenty enough to anger him. 

“We need to talk.”

Skye turned around to see her father standing in the doorway, “dad…”

“Skye, I just want you to know… I love you but… What you did was wrong.”

“I know.”

“You hurt people, Skye. You hurt Ben and then because you hurt Ben, he hurt Sean.”

“I know…”

“You need to make it right,” he crossed his arms, “you can’t just go around doing this kind of stuff to people, you have to realise people have feelings.”

“I know… I wasn’t thinking straight when I was with him.”

“Clearly,” Ed let out a loud grunt, “you can’t have both of them, Skye. I mean… Polyamory does exist but… After what you did, I highly doubt you’ll make that work after going behind Ben’s back like that.”

“Yeah.”

“Who do you want? What do you want?”

“I don’t know,” Skye admitted, “I have no idea what I want.”

“Than take things slow, keep away from boys for a while, hm?”

“Yeah,” Skye let out a quick laugh, “I hurt Ben so much, and… Now Sean’s in pain.”

“Which one do you feel worse about?” 

Skye took a moment, taking in a deep breath, “I think… Sean. I mean, I feel bad for Ben of course but… It was my fault that Ben’s hurt but it was also my fault that Ben hurt Sean. I don’t know, it’s so complicated.”

“It wouldn’t have been if you hadn’t let it get complicated.”

“I know.”

Ed shook his head, “do what you need to do, but… Don’t let ‘what you need to do’ be one of the boys. I mean really, you’re turning into some teenager stereotype,” he hissed out a whisper, “and I don’t want your reputation to be damaged like that.”

“Oh, a teenage girl who like to have sex? The shame!” She sarcastically called out, “dad… Look, I think… I mean, I know what I did was wrong – but I’m not ashamed of being a stereotype, I’m ashamed that I cheated on a boy who really liked me. I’ll never be ashamed of being a stereotype.”

“Fair enough,” Ed managed to smile, “I suppose… This means we’ve lost two members of staff for a while, hm?”

“I’ll sort it out.”

“Will you?”

“Yes. I promise.”

Skye rushed past her dad and pulled her phone at she rushed up the stairs towards her room. She could feel herself getting weaker as she dialled her friend’s number, she knew that at some point she was going to begin crying. She waited for the phone to ring, and eventually, he picked up.

“Josh!”

“Skye Hart! Nice to hear from you, because it’s clearly been too long.”

“Oh, one day,” she laughed out, “anyway… Josh,” she cleared her throat, “I told him.”

“You did?”

“Yeah… And… Stuff happened… And he pushed Sean down the stairs.”

“Oh, wow.”

“I should have known,” Skye sighed, “I should have known it would end up like this.”

“Yeah, you should have.”

“But… At least it’s all out in the open now,” she then paused, “and… all… On camera… Oh God.”

“Guess what I won’t be missing!”

“Great,” Skye let out another small laugh, “at least it’ll be entertainment.”

“Will they actually show Sean being pushed? I’d think they’d cut that out, I mean… Drama is drama but most shows don’t show stuff that goes wrong.”

“A friendship gone violent? They’re going to be lapping it up,” Skye groaned, she leaned back on her bedroom door, “Christina will love it.”

“I’m sorry it had to happen like this,” Josh whispered down the phone, his joyous tone turning into a genuine tone of concern, “but hey… I bet it could have been way worse.”

“Somehow,” Skye hummed, “look, I’m going to go now, I just needed to let you know.”

“Chill, I’ll make sure to record the next episode!”

“Oh my God.”

“Can’t miss the drama.”

Skye let out a small laugh and said her goodbyes before hanging up. She dropped the phone on her bedside table and closed her eyes as she fell down onto her bed, she opened her eyes again and stared up at the ceiling. She thought about the time in the basement with Sean and how much she had enjoyed it, how much she wanted it to continue. She thought about how Ben’s expression changed, and how he suddenly became so violent towards the boy he was usually sweet and cuddly with. She had ruined their friendship. As she thought about all the pain and strife she had caused, she rolled onto her side and wondered if she’d ever be able to make up for it.

* * * * *

Danielle giggled as her and Ben rolled her onto her back, holding himself up over her. He kissed her on the lips, the cheek, the jaw, then slowly he placed kisses on her neck, soon enough they turned into biting rather than soft kissing. Danielle tapped Ben’s shoulder, grabbing his attention, “do you have protection?” She whispered, knowing where this was now going. Ben nodded and sat up to reached into his bedside drawer.

“I’m always prepared,” he commented as he showed her the unopened condom wrapper, “I kind of… Thought that Skye and I would be doing it soon. But, I’m not mad that I’ll be using it with you instead.”

Danielle smiled and pulled Ben in for another kiss as the boy moved his hand down Danielle’s body and underneath the material of the underwear Danielle was wearing. He gently moved his fingers around the area, the cold of his fingertips making Danielle smile into their kisses. She lifted her hips up towards his hand and his middle finger gently slipped between her entrance. He spent a short while gently rubbing his fingers against Danielle’s sensitive spot until he could feel her becoming more wet with pleasure.

“Ben,” Danielle whispered his name against his lips. Ben didn’t respond, he just smiled as he deepened the kissing. He then reached up with his other hand and began to play with the straps of Danielle’s bra. Danielle quickly arched her back and reached behind her to unlatch her bra. Once she lifted her arms up, Ben glad pulled the bra from Danielle and then cupped one of her breasts as he continued to gently massage with his other hand. Danielle pulled back from the kiss quickly, “I’m ready, Ben,” she whispered, “I want to do it.”

“Are you sure?” Ben asked gently, “I don’t want to start too soon, I don’t want to end up hurting you.”

Danielle smiled to him, “sweet, but yes. I need you inside of me.”

Ben nodded and moved further down the bed to slip Danielle’s underwear off, once she was fully nude, he slipped his own boxers off and then reached for the condom that he had put down on the bed. He smiled to her as he opened it, as he did so, Danielle ran her own fingers down her torso and began to gently tease herself as he watched him roll the condom on. He crawled forward onto the bed and smiled before leaning in for another kiss. He then pulled her legs up slightly as he moved towards her. He began to kiss her again, and as he did he slowly began to penetrate her, moving gently as he didn’t want to hurt her. Danielle took in sharp breaths as Ben pushed himself in further, Ben slowly began to start a rhythm, moving in and out, whilst keeping the continuous kisses with Danielle. 

It was an odd sensation, remembering that this was her now ex-boyfriend’s ex-best friend. It wasn’t even like it was the first time they had been in this place. But the threesome was so much messier, and whilst Ben was doing his best to pleasure Danielle he also had Sean inside of him. It was the first time Ben had experienced penetration like that and she remembered that whilst he was enjoying it, he was also fighting back the pain of that. Right now, though, he didn’t have to worry about any pain. He leaned down and pressed kisses against Danielle’s neck as he kept the rhythm of his hips. 

It wasn’t perfection, it wasn’t a dreamlike moment. But it was good, it was their moment to forget about their pains. Sometimes Danielle dug her nails in too much, but Ben ignored that pain. Sometimes Ben would become too rough, but Danielle ignored that pain and let herself enjoy the way his hands touched her skin, and the way his tongue ran across her lips.

They made the moments last between them, eventually Danielle’s moans turned into screams of joy, as did Ben’s. They muffled themselves with kisses and as Danielle reached her climax she pressed her hands on Ben’s back, pulling him down against her. His thrusts changed rhythm and Danielle knew that he was at the same point. As they slowed down, Ben pulled back from the kisses and looked down into Danielle’s eyes. Danielle smiled up at him. He slowly pulled out, and then sat up, “are you alright?”

“Yes,” Danielle nodded, “I’m really good, actually.”

Ben laughed softly and slowly stood up from the bed, “do you need a shower?”

She nodded again, “yes please.”

Ben stood up and passed her clothes to her as he pulled on his own, “just in case.”

Danielle began to dress herself again, leaving her bra off, “are you going to shower with me?”

Ben pulled a face, “well, there’s not much space in there, but I can sit in there with you.”

“I’d love that,” Danielle lifted one shoulder and gave a sweet smile over it to the boy. Once they were both dressed, Ben pulled Danielle up from the bed. The girl paused and looked at him, “what do you want this to be?”

“Us?”

“Yeah.”

“I think,” Ben hummed, “well, what do you think about being… Friends with benefits?”

Danielle smiled and let out a giggle, “ooh, friends with benefits,” she repeated and placed her hands on Ben’s chest, “I mean, sure! But doesn’t ‘Friends with benefits’ sound so… Weird?”

“Would you prefer Friends who fuck?”

“Pals who procreate?”

Ben laughed, “companions who copulate?”

“Mates who mate?” Danielle offered with a raise of eyebrows.

“Chums who cum,” Ben clapped his hands together, Danielle let out a loud shriek of laughter.

“Buddies who bang!”

“Banging buddies!”

They both broke into laughter, Ben held his hands around Danielle’s waist and they stayed in place, still giggling between themselves. They broke apart soon and then made their way to the family bathroom. 

“Go on, you first,” he pointed to the shower. He turned the water on for her, Danielle then stripped down from her clothes again and stepped underneath the water. Ben folded her clothes for her and placed them on the small table that was in the bathroom. He smiled to Danielle as she ran the water through her hair.

“Ben?” The pair of them looked at each other when Ethan’s voice could be heard. Ben stepped forward and pulled the door open slightly, so that Danielle wasn’t visible. He poked his head out of the door and smiled to Ethan.

“Hey little brother.”

“I just wanted to check that you’re okay…”

“Yeah, yeah I’m good.”

Ethan pulled a face, “what’s going on? I know you, at this point you usually would have smashed mirrors and windows.”

“I’m good,” Ben whispered, he glanced behind the door to Danielle and then sighed before stepping out of the bathroom, “look, Danielle’s staying here for tonight.”

“Danielle?”

“She and I are in the same boat right now, we’re here for each other.”

“Is she in the shower right now?”

“Yes.”

“Then why were you in there?”

“I-”

“You two had sex! Didn’t you? Did you really get over Skye that quickly?”

“It’s not ‘getting over Skye’, it’s just… Two people who are going through a lot of anger and anguish,” he crossed his arms, “yes we did it.”

“As revenge to Sean and Skye?”

“No, we just needed comfort.”

“That’s what hugs are for.”

“Just… Keep it quiet, yeah?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

Ethan began to go back to his room, he looked back to Ben quickly as he got to the door, “don’t do anything stupid.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Ben laughed as he turned and walked back into the bathroom, he Danielle was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair, he paused by the opening of the shower and smiled at her, “Ethan’s mind works far too quickly.”

“It’s alright that he knows,” she shrugged as the last of the soapy suds washed out of her hair, “isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Danielle smiled to Ben and pulled her hair over her shoulder, “thank you, by the way. For letting me come here.”

“That’s alright,” Ben replied quickly, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh, “I wish things were easy, you know?”

“We’re teenagers,” Danielle said as she turned off the water, Ben passed her a towel, “it’s always going to be complicated for us.” Danielle dried herself and then wrapped herself in the towel, “we’re living cliches.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

Danielle let out a laugh, she wrung out her hair and then quickly tied it up, “do you have a hairdryer?”

“Yeah,” Ben quickly nodded, “well, my mum does. I’ll go get it for you.”

“Thank you.”

Ben opened the door, “Ethan!” He called out, “stay in your room for a second, yeah?”

“Sure, whatever!”

Ben then rushed Danielle out of the bathroom and let her go back to his own room, he went to his parent’s room and grabbed the hairdryer. He paused as he caught his own reflection in the mirror, he examined himself. Was he going to be happy doing this with Danielle? What if it all backfired and they ended up hating each other more than they previously had? He shook his head, he needn’t worry about that, not anymore. If things were ruined then so what? He’d have to get used to disappointment soon enough so why not start now? He took the hairdryer through to Danielle and then excused himself so he could also have a shower. It wasn’t long until he was thinking about the girl again. He thought about Danielle, and then he thought about Skye. He thought about his friendship with Sean ended just like that. He closed his eyes and turned on the water, he quickly stepped into the shower and washed himself down, he began to think about his time with Danielle again. The time they had spent together, though just happened, was something he was sure he wouldn’t forget. Spontaneous, and meaningless. They were going to continue like this, and Ben was ecstatic for that, they could be friends over their losses. They could pleasure each other whilst they were both brokenhearted.

Once finished in the shower, he hesitated to return to the bedroom. His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts over the whole situation. He knew nobody could know, they’d laugh, sneer, they’d call him and Danielle names for ‘moving on’ so quickly. They’d be a secret. Nobody needed to know.


	19. Aftermath (S1/E7/P1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone deals with the aftermath of the events from the previous day. Sean makes some daring accusations whilst Ben's parents question their son about his sex life.

Skye woke up the next morning, still feeling the misery and regret from what she had done. She checked her phone, perhaps Ben had messaged her, but there were no new messages from anybody. She groaned and rolled onto her back, life had been easy just a few days prior, and now her life was a mess. It wasn’t as though she could blame anybody other than herself, some might argue she could blame Sean but really… If she had said no, he wouldn’t have continued. But she said yes. She jumped out of her bed and decided it was best that she get on with the day ahead of her rather than lying in bed in self-pity. She dressed in her uniform and then began to make her way downstairs, she wondered if Ben would show up for work, she could apologise to him and perhaps they’d be able to talk to each other calmly… Although, people always mentioned how Ben was known for his anger, and that did make her dread the idea of seeing him again. 

She took a deep breath as she made her way down the stairs, she passed Kaylee and Noah who gave her a half hearted smile, both of them knew what she had done but it was clear they didn’t want to drop her instantly. She smiled back to them, “do you know if Ben’s here?”

Kaylee shook her head, “I haven’t seen him yet.”

Skye frowned, “I’ll call him.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Noah asked, “he probably won’t answer.”

“I mean… There’s no harm in trying. If I all from the office phone he might think it’s my dad!”

Noah nodded slowly, “you think he’d answer to your dad after he called you a bitch yesterday?”

“I deserved it.”

“Yeah,” Kaylee folded her arms, “and Sean deserved the push down the stairs. What were you two thinking?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re going to have to make a decision, aren’t you?” Noah hummed, “Sean or Ben? Tough one.”

“And you better apologise to Danielle.”

“Danielle!” Skye shrieked, “oh God, she’s going to murder me.”

“You probably deserve that too,” Kaylee commented as she pulled a face.

“I completely forgot about Danielle…”

“Her and Ben didn’t deserve what they got.”

“I know.”

“But, at least it means her and Sean are over,” Kaylee looked to Noah as she spoke, she then turned back to Skye, “Sean cheated on her before, you know? 

“He did?”

“Yeah, with Jess, his old biking partner,” Noah raised his eyebrows as he spoke, “that girl was bad news. Of course she seduced him into sleeping with her, he only regretted it when she left him alone the next morning.”

“Why didn’t Danielle break up with him then?”

“She never knew,” Kaylee shrugged.

“She knows now though,” Noah whispered the comment to Kaylee, “Ben accidentally told her, apparently she said that she knew Sean cheated on her and Ben thought it was about Jess so when he said her name Danielle was absolutely destroyed.”

Kaylee gasped, “so Danielle already knew about you and Sean?”

“Or one of the other girls Sean hooked up with when Danielle wasn’t around,” Noah offered quickly before assumptions were made.

“True,” Kaylee hummed.

Skye covered her mouth, “I asked Danielle to come to the bike race when she wasn’t there, she must have come after all and… She must have seen us in the tent.”

“This is such a sordid affair,” Noah whispered.

“This is all too dramatic for me,” Skye covered her eyes, “I was meant to come here, lead a peaceful life, and instead I’m ruining everybody else’s.”

“Too dramatic for you?” Kaylee scoffed, “you’re the one that’s causing the drama, Skye.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Skye walked away from the pair and looked around, once outside the lodge she saw Ben approaching the building. The boy pushed back his hair as he walked up the path.

“Ben!” She called out to him, smiling as she saw him. He looked up at her and rolled his eyes instantly.

“I’m not here to hear your excuses, Skye, I just came to collect my stuff from the staffroom.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I’m quitting,” Ben answered, giving her a look which made her feel stupid, “what? You think I’d work here for the girl who fucked my best friend? Mm,” he laughed, “think again.”

“But you love it here.”

“I used to, before two people I loved and trusted betrayed me. Now whenever I walk past the basement I’ll just end up thinking of you two. I’m quitting my job.”

“Ben,” Skye spoke in a pleading tone, “please don’t do this.”

Ben shook his head and passed Skye, he made his way to the staff room and collected the few things he had in his locker. Skye followed him into the staffroom, ready to pester him further.

“If you just give me a chance, Ben, we can at least be friends again.”

“I’d rather not,” Ben’s replies were instant and honest. He turned around, gave a fake smile, “see ya,” he hissed quickly and stormed past her. He left her alone in the staffroom, she finally got the memo and decided against following him. She closed her eyes and decided that perhaps if she waited, eventually he’d speak to her again. 

* * * * *

Kaylee left Noah’s side once she saw Oz in the next room. She was infatuated with him and it hurt Noah than she seemed so in love. Oz, on the other hand, didn’t exactly seem like he was in love. It was more lust than anything else. He looked at Kaylee like she was a piece of meat which disgusted Noah. He watched as Oz kept his eyes on the girl, leering somewhat. It wasn’t fair that Noah was pushed aside like this, but then he thought to how he had been with Lori around, he had pushed Kaylee aside. Was Kaylee getting payback for how Noah had treated her previously, perhaps she was. Noah figured that perhaps he could call her out for that, but then what if she wasn’t playing that game? She’d probably become more frustrated with Noah.

Things would have been different if this reality show hadn’t started to be involved, if they had left well enough alone then Lori would have never come along and neither would have Oz. Noah recalled how Lori had revealed she was interested in him for the cameras, and he later found out it was Christina’s idea. Lori had messaged him about the situation a few times, telling him how it was all a set up by Christina, she wanted to keep Kaylee and Noah apart to make them realise their feelings for each other in the big finale of the series. 

Noah grinned to himself as he realised what was going on, he could tell Kaylee and she’d thank him for stopping her from the fake love interest. He looked over to where Oz and Kaylee were only to find they had gone from where they were. He groaned and turned around, perhaps he could leave it for a short while, but it might have been the sooner the better, before Kaylee fell too far for the boy.

He ran his hands through his hair and decided he’d focus his mind on something else for the time being. He caught sight of Ben leaving the lodge, rushing down the path. He instantly decided to run over to the boy.

“Ben! Hey.”

Ben turned to Noah, his expression being one of annoyance, “hey.”

“Did I do something to offend you?” Noah asked timidly, wondering if he had said something out of line at some point, but he hadn’t spoken to Ben since the previous day.

“No, no it’s fine. It’s just Skye. She’s trying to talk to me again as though she didn’t fuck my best friend in our workplace.”

“Oh, fair enough,” Noah nodded slowly, “so uh… do you think you and Sean will ever talk again?”

“Probably not.”

“I mean, you did push him down the stairs.”

“He shouldn’t have stood between me and the stairs then, should he?” Ben challenged the boy, “besides, he knows what I’m like when I get angry. Why would he do something when he knows how I’d react to it?” He paused, “I’m sure he’s fine anyway.”

“He was unconscious,” Noah informed Ben in a gentle voice, “they got an ambulance for him, I think he’s okay now, he might have a few bruises…”

Ben hummed, “well, good for him.”

“Are you going to apologise?”

“For pushing him down the stairs after he fucked my girlfriend? You’re joking,” Ben hissed out his words.

“You guys were best friends… Things won’t be right without you two being friends again.”

Ben scoffed out a laugh and then looked at Noah, “you think I’m in the wrong, don’t you?” He folded his arms, “you think I’m the villain here.”

“No, no I don’t it’s just-”

“I suppose everyone thinks Danielle’s a bitch too.”

“Well she didn’t push Sean down the stairs.”

“Unbelievable.”

“Look, I just think that…”

“I’m not talking about this anymore,” Ben waved a hand, “clearly everybody else is team Sean, you lot are meant to be my friends.”

“We are!”

Ben rolled his eyes and walked away, leaving Noah alone on the path. Noah turned back into the lodge to look for Kaylee and Oz, but they were nowhere to be seen, which instantly worried Noah. He looked around, ending up in the office where the set up for the show was, Christina was sat watching the feed of the video cameras.

“Noah!” Christina looked to him with a smile on her face, “you’re probably the least dramatic person when it comes to tonight’s episode,” she grinned, “with the whole Ben, Skye, and Sean drama, and Kaylee and Oz sneaking off to the basement to ‘be alone’, you’re the innocent one in all of this!”

“Wait what?”

“You’re the innocent one…”

“No,” Noah looked at the woman, “I mean… What did you say about Oz and Kaylee?”

Christina gave a smirk and nodded to one of the screens where a camera was recording in the basement, “we didn’t have one there before, until Josh questioned us about having a camera down there. He said he was picking his nose but turns out he was just covering for the Skye and Sean deal, huh? So we decided to get the basement cameras up.”

On the screen, Kaylee and Oz were sat on the sofa in the basement, Oz leaning over Kaylee and it wasn’t long at all until he leaned in to kiss the girl. Kaylee didn’t pull away like Noah thought she might, in fact she leaned into it.

“I’ve uh,” Noah cleared his throat, “I need to go.”

“Alright,” Christina replied, not even hiding her smile as the boy turned and left. She looked back to the basement feed and raised her eyebrows, “he’ll be involved in the drama soon enough.”

* * * * *

Danielle rolled over in the bed and smiled as she woke up, taking in the scent of Ben’s pillow. Sure, they weren’t to be romantically involved but the way she felt about him was new and wonderful for her. The idea of not having attachments but being able to be sexually fulfilled made her feel free.

She opened her eyes when she heard the bedroom door opening, Ben walked in and dropped a bag onto the floor, “sorry,” he whispered as he got into the bedroom, “I didn’t want to wake you up, I thought you might not be a morning person.”

“Fair enough,” Danielle shifted, pulling the covers up with her to keep her covered, “where did you go?”

“I picked some of my stuff up from the lodge,” Ben gestured to the bag as he sat on the end of the bed, “Skye tried to talk to me.”

“Fun.”

“She was like ‘just give me a chance and we can be friends’,” he let out a bitter laugh, “I can’t believe she thought I’d be okay to ‘be friends’ after she fucked my best friend.”

Danielle smiled and then shifted under the covers, “things got so complicated since she got here.”

Ben nodded, “but we can’t blame her completely for Sean’s actions…”

“Wait,” Danielle looked to Ben, her expression shifting to one of sorrow, “you knew about the whole Jess thing.”

“Yeah.”

“For how long?”

“A couple of years.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The same reason you didn’t tell me about Skye and Sean, I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“But you hated me.”

“I disliked you, because I thought you were bad for Sean.”

“Even though he cheated on me?”

“He used to tell me that… That you were horrible to him. That he did it to get revenge.”

Danielle folded her arms, “oh.”

“Not too long ago, he told me that he lied about you being horrible…”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Ben let out a sigh, “at that point you looked like… You really loved him, and you really looked after him and stuff and… I didn’t want you to be brokenhearted. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay, I didn’t tell you about Sean and Skye kissing,” Danielle then grunted and leaned back, “I have to wear the same clothes as yesterday.”

“You can wear one of my shirts if you want, like, until you get back to yours.”

“I have to go straight to work,” Danielle frowned, “someone might realise I’m wearing your shirt.”

Ben got up and opened his drawers, he pulled out a plain white shirt and passed it to Danielle, “just wear this, tuck it in or something.”

Danielle smiled softly at Ben as she took the shirt, “thank you, I guess it won’t raise questions.”

Ben grabbed Danielle’s shorts that she had worn the day prior, he also picked up her bra. He handed the clothes to her and let out a very quiet laugh, “you actually look amazing in the mornings, you know that?”

“Thanks,” Danielle smiled to him as she began to dress herself, “I feel good.”

Ben leaned closer to Danielle and pressed a quick kiss on the corner of her lips, “part of me wants to fuck you again,” he whispered, “but I won’t make you late for work.”

Danielle smiled and pulled off the top she had just put on, “let’s do it.”

“Alright then,” Ben laughed and pulled his clothes off, pressing kisses against Danielle’s lips, cheeks, and jawline. She pulled him down onto her and then he moved to bite her neck, he pulled the covers and began to place kisses down Danielle’s chest and stomach, “I guess we’ll be quick,” he whispered to her.

* * * * *

Sean got out of the hospital soon enough, able to walk – only limping slightly. Due to one of his knees being damaged by the fall. He tried taking multiple tablets, only finding that they didn’t work for his pain, and so – in a Sean Matthews fashion – he took to the one thing he knew made him feel numb. He shut himself in his bedroom and found his small hidden bag, quickly clearing his desk and cutting a line of cocaine, he snorted the powder and the effect soon took place, making him feel numb as he wanted to feel. He put the bag back into it’s hiding place and fell back onto his bed, he never usually did the lines at home, he always took it away from his house – but right now he felt like he was practically on house arrest with his busted knee.

He closed his eyes and thought about how everything could be, how it should be. He should be able to do what he wanted, being free, not tied down to anything or anyone. He could feel his rush, and he then realised that he needed to get out of his house before it was given away to his parents, he pushed himself up and rushed out of the room. He caught himself on the banister before he could fall down another set of stairs. He could feel the sudden sharp pain in his knee but he knew it would ease soon enough. He made his way down the stairs and to the front door.

“Uh, Sean!” His mother called as she walked into the hallway.

Sean quickly wiped his nose in case there was any evidence remaining, he turned around and gave a grin, “mum, hey!”

“Where do you think you’re going?” She called out to him, offering a teasing smile, “might I remind you that you were told to rest.”

“I can’t,” Sean let out a quick laugh, “I need to go… Go… I need to go make things right with Ben!” He quickly used the excuse, “I really fucked up, mum.”

“Language,” she folded her arms and glared at him, “and yes, you did. You really hurt him, Sean.”

“I know.”

“At least you’re being honest with us though,” she shrugged, giving a smile, “normally the kids wouldn’t tell their parents that they had sex with their best friend’s girlfriend in the basement of their workplace!”

“It was pretty good,” Sean let out a small laugh.

“Sean.”

“Sorry.”

“Look, you can’t go anywhere with that knee! You need to stay home.”

“Mum, please,” Sean looked around, knowing he had to get out of the house, “drive me to the lodge!”

“You think it’s ideal for you to be there right now?”

“I need to talk things over, with everyone. Please, please do this for me.”

“Fine,” she tutted and waved a hand, “if your dad asks, you slipped out without me noticing.”

“Ma’am, yes ma’am.”

Ella helped Sean into the passenger car seat, the state of his sobriety being unknown to her. He closed his eyes throughout most of the journey, opening them once again when she announced their arrival.

“Thanks mum,” Sean grinned as he stepped out of the car, “I’ll see you later!”

“Don’t walk home,” Ella begged him with her eyes, “I don’t want you damaging your knee even more!”

“Yes, mum,” Sean winked to her, “now go, I’ll be home safe. I promise. If I don’t turn up I’ll probably be here,” he gestured to the lodge, “where everybody loves me right now.”

Ella gave him a smile, one which was laced with sadness, “be safe.”

She drove away, and Sean turned to look up at the lodge, he knew that Ben was less than likely to make his way into work. Danielle might not even show up for her role with the television programme. As he heard a car pull up, he realised he was wrong. He turned around and saw Danielle leaving the car…

Danielle leaving the car which belonged to Ben’s mum.

She and Sean made eye contact as Ben’s mum drove away, and Sean let out a scoff of laughter, “jumping on his dick when he’s down, huh?”

“Oh, fuck off,” Danielle hissed back, “Ben and I are going through a tough time because of you and your inability to keep your dick calm! We’re comforting each other.”

“Oh, is that what they’re calling it?” Sean cocked his head, narrowing his eyes, “guess we’ve got something in common, huh, Danielle? At the end of the day, we’re both sluts.”

“Fuck off!” Danielle screamed at the boy, “me and Ben are friends and that’s far more than you can say since you fucked everyone over!”

“You know why I fucked other people, Danielle?”

“Why?”

“Because I was bored of you! Your fucking fake ass porn star moans are vile, you’re just a fucking bore. A fucking bore and a boring fuck.”

“I was faking those moans because you were fucking terrible,” Danielle spat back, “and just remember Sean,” she pressed her finger onto the end of his nose, he flinched only slightly but his nose remained in contact with Danielle’s finger, “I know your dirty secret,” she cocked her head to the side, “you’re high right now, I can tell - because that’s how often you put me through that fucking shit!”

“Oh woopdidoo!” Sean cried out, “so I like to do coke, at least I got some thrill when I was with you.”

Danielle rolled her eyes, “whatever, Sean. Whatever you have to say to me today… I don’t care. I don’t care anymore! Because I’m more than just your girlfriend, your ex-girlfriend, the girl you cheated on. I’m Danielle Clarke, I can handle myself without you and your pathetic lies. I’m my own person, I don’t need a boy to stay happy.”

“Ah, so that’s why you fucked Ben for revenge?”

Danielle scoffed out a laugh, “again, it didn’t happen,” she denied the accusation swiftly, noting in her head that Sean had seemed to figure it out so quickly, “we’re friends now, so thank you so much for helping me find a friend.”

“Good point,” Sean hummed as Danielle began to walk past him, “why would he want to fuck you anyway? You’re not exactly a nice pretty girl, like the ones he likes.”

Danielle only responded by flipping up her middle finger to him as she continued to walk. It was a pity she couldn’t boast about it to Sean, but she vowed to Ben she’d keep their arrangement a secret, and she didn’t break her vows. 

With Danielle out of sight, Sean fell down onto the bench and let out a groan. He rubbed his eyes and leaned back, whatever happened would happen. 

* * * * * 

“So,” Ben’s mum spoke as she entered the home, making Ben pause in his tracks as he came down the stairs, “Danielle Clarke? Ben, don’t tell me you’re having sex with your best friend’s girlfriend! And cheating on Skye?”

“Funny you should say that,” Ben scoffed, “no, I wasn’t cheating on Skye, or having sex with my best friend’s girlfriend. Multiple things are wrong with those statements. One, Sean isn’t my best friend anymore. Two, Danielle isn’t Sean’s girlfriend anymore. Three, Skye isn’t my girlfriend anymore. Four, Sean and Skye cheated on me and Danielle.”

Natalie’s eyes were wide, she cleared her throat, “so you’re not denying you had sex with Danielle.”

Ben let out a small laugh, “I’m not denying that,” he folded his arms, “but you can’t tell anybody! And it’s not… It’s not a relationship,” he shrugged, “it’s just sex.”

“Oh, your dad and I had a similar thing, you know! Not a relationship, just for sex and whatnot. Until our little baby boy came along!”

“Wait what?”

“Oh, Ben, your dad and I were friends with benefits for quite a while! We were on and off.”

“I thought you were like… high school sweethearts!”

“No,” his mum laughed, “we were on and off friends with benefits, only stopping when your dad got close to having relationships – but then we’d end up together again, and when I was pregnant… I realised I didn’t want to lose you, or him. I realised I loved him.”

“That’s not going to happen with us,” Luke laughed quietly, “I don’t think me and Danielle would ever end up together. I doubt she’ll end up pregnant either, I mean I used protection both times, I’ll continue to use it! And if I don’t, then Danielle will take the morning after pill, I’m sure!”

“That’s what your father thought,” his mother hummed as she walked through to the kitchen, Ben followed her, “although, it would be great to be a grandmother at 36!”

“You’re not going to be a grandmother.”

“I’d be a great nana,” she grinned to Ben, “Danielle was really sweet when I took her to the lodge,” she hummed quietly, “I wouldn’t be mad if she did stick around, as long as you’re not cheating on people.”

“I’m not a cheater.”

“I know, darling,” his mum cupped his face and offered a smile, “you’re my wonderful boy.”

“Man,” Ben quickly corrected his mother.

“No, you’re still my boy. I love you!” She cooed to him. Ben chuckled as his mother wrapped her arms around him, “my baby boy!”

“Mum, stop it!” Ben laughed loudly as he tried to escape her grip.

“I suppose you are actually grown up now, how many girls is it now? Three!”

“Again, Danielle isn’t my girlfriend…”

“But you’ve had sex with all three girls, that’s what I mean.”

“Actually, I didn’t have sex with Skye. She lost her virginity to Sean, which just makes it all hurt a little bit more.”

Natalie gave her son a sad smile, “well, in that case… I suppose the whole revenge sex thing is acceptable.”

“It’s not revenge sex!” Ben called out.

“Woah,” Ben turned as his dad entered the room, his eyebrows raised, “our boy’s having revenge sex?”

“It’s not…”

“Now Ben…”

“Skye cheated on him,” Natalie quickly informed her husband, “with Sean.”

“What?” Ben’s dad rushed forward, “why would they do that to you? Did you do anything to upset them?”

“Not that I know of!” Ben replied.

“Wait, who’s the revenge sex with?” He turned to his wife for an answer.

“Danielle,” Natalie sounded like a gossiping school girl.

“It’s not revenge sex,” Ben repeated calmly, “it’s a friend with benefits situation, we’re going to be there for each other after everything that happened.”

“Fair enough,” his dad hummed and gave a nod as he pushed his glasses up, “you know, your mum and I were friends with benefits!”

“Yeah, before I was conceived, mum told me.”

“When we imagined having a little family, we realised how well we worked together… And I realised I loved her. I asked her to be my girlfriend at last and we quickly got our lives together. Right now, we couldn’t be happier! If the sex is good, the love life is good.”

“Love life with Ana wasn’t as good as the sex,” Ben shrugged, “so you’re wrong there.”

Ben’s father shook his head and let out a laugh, “sex first, romance after.”

“Such amazing parents,” Ben rolled his eyes as he joined in the laughter, “thanks… Really. But again, Danielle and I aren’t going to end up together romantically.”

Ben’s dad nodded, “sure son, sure.”

As his parents began their own conversation, Ben leaned back against the door frame and thought about his relationship with Danielle. He was certain it wouldn’t change that as his mother’s and fathers did, but why did they seem so keen to get him to understand that theirs had? He shook his head, getting rid of the thought, and turned around to head back up to his room.


	20. Cancelled (S1/E7/P2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danielle comes up with an idea for the show, and so does Christina - two workers of the show go into full spy mode to get some dramatic footage.

Danielle stopped as she got into the office, smiling as Christina looked up at her, “I have an editing idea, something to really settle in the drama.”

“Oh?”

“In my interview with Ben, he called Sean his best friend and stuff, imagine that, ‘he’s my best friend’, cut to Sean confessing that he fucked Skye in the basement.”

“That would make for a perfect advert, and we’ve still got time to get some edited to air before tonight’s show! You’re a genius, Danielle!”

“Even when I’m in pain,” Danielle continued to smile, she looked around curiously, “this whole thing, it’s hard.”

“I know, Danielle. I’m sorry he cheated on you but at the same time I’m glad we’ve got the drama!”

Danielle let out a hum which made her bitterness clear, “mm, thanks,” she hissed out. She turned away from her and played with her hair, “I guess I’ll go cause more drama.”

“Oh, I don’t suppose you could get Ben back at the lodge? He quit his job, and what’s the point in having all this drama just for him not to come back? He needs to stir things up, can you get into contact with him for me?”

Danielle shook her head, “it’s best if he stays away. He can get quite angry.”

“And angry is drama, and drama is views. Come on Danielle! Don’t you want to do what’s right for this show?”

“I’ll try,” Danielle lied, “sure, why not.”

“Great!”

Danielle left the office and paused when she saw Skye, the blonde looked over to her and then stepped forward as though to attempt a conversation with Danielle. Danielle quickly turned away and rushed down to the basement, pausing as she got to the bottom of the steps. She saw Oz and Kaylee in an embrace she never thought Kaylee would be in, “oh, uh”, she cleared her throat, “guess the basement is where people come to get it on.”

“Danielle,” Kaylee pulled back from Oz and stood up, luckily she was still clothed so things hadn’t gone that far yet, “hey, are you alright after… Everything?”

“Not really,” Danielle folded her arms, “so what were you two up to?”

Oz shrugged, “just talking.”

“Just talking? Oh I’m sure the cameras will love that,” she commented, flashing a fake smile to the boy.

“There’s no cameras down here,” Kaylee let out a laugh.

Danielle then pointed to one which was pointed directly at the sofa, “they added it after the Sean and Skye thing was revealed.”

“Oh God,” Kaylee whispered, “oh no, I uh,” she looked at Danielle with wide eyes, “you need to stop that footage from getting out.”

“Oh dear,” Danielle looked at her, a smile forming, “what did you two get up to?”

“It was only a bit of a make out,” Oz tutted, “don’t worry yourself, love.”

Kaylee looked around to him, “I can’t have my first kiss aired on live TV!”

“Not bad for a first kiss,” Oz grinned, leaning back.

“If mum sees that,” Kaylee looked at Danielle with wide eyes, “she’ll start fussing! She’ll think I’m having sex! She’ll freak out!”

“Chill out Kaylee, everybody’s had something about them revealed during this show,” Danielle cocked her head to the side slowly, “just roll with it.”

“No way!”

“Are you ashamed of being with me?” Oz asked, leaning forward, “come on, babe.”

“It’s not that,” Kaylee looked to him, “I just… Please, Danielle, if you’re my best friend you’ll get that footage deleted.”

“Oh, so I am your best friend?” Danielle folded her arms, “I thought you’d replaced me with Skye, just like Sean.”

“Danielle, I…”

“It’s funny, the people you turn to when there’s nobody else,” she looked around, “the episode is already mostly edited, sorry,” she lied quickly and turned back. Leaving Oz and Kaylee alone in the basement. Kaylee looked over to the young man, he simply ran his hands along his thighs.

“Come on, doll,” he leaned forward as he spoke to her, “there’s no harm in a little bit of kissing.”

Kaylee hesitated before moving towards him. He [laced his hands on her waist and gently pulled her down onto his lap, keeping her legs either side of his, “I don’t know if I uh…”

Oz didn’t seem to care about what Kaylee was about to say, he began to press his lips against Kaylee’s neck, brushing her hair back out of the way. His soft kisses changed soon into biting, nipping his teeth along Kaylee’ skin as though he was purposely trying to get a reaction from the girl. 

Kaylee stopped speaking and moved her hands to Oz’s shoulders digging her nails in as his bites became harder. Oz’s hands were on Kaylee’s hips, and slowly he moved them up under her shirt. Kaylee quickly pulled back and looked around the area, “not with the camera,” she whispered, she then rushed over to the device, “sorry Christina,” she mumbled, she turned the position of the camera away from the sofa and then turned back to Oz, “where were we?”

“You know they’ll still hear, right?”

“Then we’ll be quiet,” she whispered, straddling him once again, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his, he moved his hands up the back of her shirt again, his cold fingers pressing against her warm skin. The feeling was new to her, she was somewhat unsure of whether she should continue, but as he pulled her closer she could feel his arousal through his jeans and suddenly she felt the impulse to continue. She found herself moving with him, he thrusted up towards her and she accepted it. Their kiss deepened as his hands moved around her torso to her chest. He kept his hand above the cup of her bra to begin with, fondling one of her breasts as his lips formed a smile against hers. Without questioning, he tugged at the cup of her bra, and she allowed her strap to fall down her shoulder, letting Oz pull the cup down and groping her bare breast underneath her shirt. She kissed him harder in an attempt to distract herself from how odd she felt in that moment. Oz’s other hand moved from underneath her shirt to her thigh, rubbing his hand over the material of her trousers.

“Maybe we should go into an unoccupied room instead, hey?” Oz whispered to her as his thumb brushed over her nipple. She jerked back suddenly and stared at him for a moment before clearing her throat.

“I need to get back to work.”

“Come on, love, it’ll only take twenty minutes,” he grinned to her, giving a wink.

“I haven’t done it before,” Kaylee hissed out the reply, “and I don’t want it to happen here.”

“Ah, you’re one of those ‘virginity is sacred’ people,” Oz chuckled, “it’s not really that big of a deal, babe,” he stood up and walked towards her slowly, “it’s human nature. Sometimes, you just need a bit of sex.”

“It means more than that to me,” Kaylee whispered.

“Alright,” Oz nodded, holding his hands up in a surrender, “I won’t rush you into it,” he placed his hands on her waist, “if you want,” he whispered, leaning in closer, “we can always start with something else, oral sex?”

“I just want to get back to work,” Kaylee ran her hand over her other arm to comfort herself, “I’ll uh… I’ll see you later.”

“Alright, see you later,” Oz nodded as the girl ran upstairs. He gave a small smile of satisfaction and then walked towards the camera, he changed the position so it was how it was before, “hope that was a good show for you.”

* * * * *

Skye began to walk around the grounds of the lodge, picking up any litter that had been left by careless guests, she stopped when she saw Sean lying on the bench, looking as though he might be unconscious. 

“Sean!” She dropped the bag of litter and ran over to the boy, “Sean?”

The boy opened his eyes and gave a smile, “oh hey!” He called out in a high-pitched voice, “fuck, you look so good,” he said quickly as he sat up, his eyes darted around as he examined the girl, “no wonder I couldn’t help myself the other day,” he let out a quick laugh.

“Thanks?” Skye sat down next to him, “what are you doing here?”

“Escaping,” Sean answered, he began to scratch his neck as he hummed, “what are you doing here?” He repeated the question, Skye gave him an odd look before she slowly answered.

“You’re… at the lodge… Sean.”

Sean paused and then looked around, he let out a laugh and looked back to Skye, hitting her shoulder gently, “I’m kidding, Skye!”

“Right.”

“How are you?”

“I’m alright,” Skye replied, leaning back on the bench, “I’ve messed everything up.”

“Everything was already pretty messy,” Sean narrowed his eyes, “you just kind of… Helped to sort out the messes! You might think you’re bringing all the drama but I think you’re helping us out,” he was still scratching his neck every now and then. He then paused to look at Skye, “you’re a hero.”

“Or an Anti-hero.”

“Where’s Ben?”

“He quit,” Skye answered, dropping her head, “because of us.”

“Oh, fair enough,” Sean whispered. He turned to Skye and offered a smile, “at least you don’t have to worry about it being awkward,” he let out a chuckle, even when the girl wasn’t entertained by the comment.

“He was so happy working here.”

“Hey, don’t focus on that now,” he offered her a smile, “focus on the better things, like you got that band to perform!”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve got loads of fans, all of them probably willing to die just to kiss you, I know I would.”

“Sean.”

“I mean it, Skye,” Sean whispered, leaning towards her, “you’re stunning.”

“Stop it,” Skye spoke quietly, meaning her words, “I don’t want to…. I just want a break from all these stupid games.”

“They’re not games. Skye Hart, this is real life,” he placed his hand on her knee, “me liking you, this is real life.”

“Stop it,” Skye stood up, “please, I just… I just don’t want to… I don’t want to cause anymore pain or grief. My mind is a mess, Sean, I don’t know whether I want you or Ben… I don’t know what to do.”

“Decide,” Sean shrugged.

“Helpful.”

“I mean it, make a decision between us, take your time but… Make a decision. Think about the pros of being with Ben, good abs, great smile, beautiful eyes. Think about the cons of being with Ben, the anger issues, the yelling, the crying. Think about the pros of being with me, the sex,” he winked, “the passion. And think about the cons of being with me,” he went to speak but paused, “nope, can’t think of any.”

“You think too highly of yourself?”

“Fair point,” Sean hummed.

“And your orgasm face looks like this,” she mimicked his facial expression, Sean let out a laugh and lightly hit her arm.

“Stop that.”

“It does,” she shrugged.

“Yeah well, yours looked like this,” Sean retorted as he mimicked Skye’s expression. The girl shrieked out a laugh. She stopped laughing and eventually gave a simple smile to the boy.

“I’ll think things through.”

“I trust you will.”

“It won’t be instant, Sean.”

“I know, I’ll wait,” he smiled to her.

Skye looked down at her phone as it began to ring, “it’s Ben,” she whispered, “I’ll be back, I need to answer this.”

Skye stood up from her seat and accepted the call, “Ben? Hi!”

“Maybe we do need to talk about this,” Ben responded quickly, his tone sounding harsh, “this whole ordeal, we need to talk about it.”

“We will,” Skye nodded, soon realising that Ben couldn’t see her.

“Meet me by the lake,” Ben sighed, on the other end of the phone, “no cameras, no crew. I want you to be real, and honest with me.”

“Of course.”

“10 minutes.”

“I’ll see you then.”

The phone call ended and Skye rushed inside, darting through the lodge to the office. Christina turned to her as she entered, “Skye! I need you to do something for me!”

“Can’t right now,” Skye rushed as she grabbed her jacket from a desk, “I’ve got to go to the lake.”

“The lake? Why?”

“I’ve got to talk to Ben about… stuff. Sorry, I need to go now!”

When Skye rushed out of the room, Christina smiled to herself and quickly left the office in search of crew members. She found two quickly, Sayid and Vicki.

“You two,” She smiled to the pair, “I need you to take the drone camera, go to the lake and record Skye and Ben. But don’t let them see you!”

“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” Sayid jokingly saluted Christina, Vicki glared at him and gave a tut.

“You’re such a prick,” she mumbled to him, nudging him with her elbow, she then turned to Christina, “here, what’s in it for us?”

Christina stared at the girl, giving a shrug.

“Right then, no deal,” Vicki shrugged, “you can’t give? You won’t get.”

“Oh, fine,” Christina hissed, looking at the younger girl, “what do you want?”

“More money,” Vicki answered with ease, “or a dog. Yeah, get us a dog.”

“Us?” Sayid turned to Vicki, “what do you mean us?”

“Not _us_ us, I mean _me_ us. It’s how I talk, Sayid, are you really gonna take the piss out of us?”

“No,” Sayid responded, turning away from the girl, “if you’re getting her a dog, I want a hamster.”

“A dog and a hamster? Done deal! Now go! Before they disappear somewhere, you never know – they could be meeting up to have sex! It’s what teenagers are like these days!”

“Eugh,” Vicki grunted, “I’m a teenager, are you saying we’re all sluts?”

“Vicki…”

“Whatever,” Vicki shrugged again, twirling her dyed red ponytail, “come on Sayid, let’s get going, I want that pooch.”

“And so does Ben, apparently,” Sayid commented as they passed Christina. Christina listened to the two younger members of the crew as they walked away.

“What the fuck was that meant to mean?” Vicki’s low voice snapped.

“Pooch! Like… Her vagina?”

“Noone calls it that, you mong!”

“They don’t?”

“No! You’re so thick!”

Their argument trailed off into the distance from Christina, and the woman proudly smiled to herself, Skye and Ben might get up to something sordid at their little meeting, and Christina needed to add to the drama of the episode. 

* * * * *

Sayid and Vicki found their way to the lake, Vicki stopped Sayid when she spotted the blonde, “stay quiet, you mong.”

“You’re the one talking!”

“Shut up!”

Sayid rolled his eyes and set down the drone, “wait how do we hear wait they’re saying?”

Vicki looked around, “you climb a tree and hold the boom.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“I was joking, you mong.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Oh, shut up!” Vicki thumped her hand against Sayid’s shoulder, “she’ll hear us.”

“But really, about the microphone?” 

Vicki shrugged, “it doesn’t matter, all we need to do is catch footage of them to fucking in a bush or something, that’s what Christina’s looking for, not some deep conversation about Skye being a bitch.”

“Ben’s coming!” Sayid whispered out.

“Oh, he will be,” Vicki chuckled mischievously as she and Sayid hid behind the tree. Sayid was behind her, and they both stayed still and quiet until Vicki looked over her shoulder to him, “that better not be your dick.”

“That’s the controller,” Sayid shot back.

“I’m holding the controller!”

“Oh, then yeah it’s my dick.”

“You’re fucking vile, mate.”

“Yeah well, you’re attractive.”

“I’m also fucking gay to be honest.”

“Oh, that makes it all so much better.”

“Oi!” Vicki kicked her foot back into Sayid’s shin, “anyway, shut up, they’re talking.”

The pair listened in, hearing the distant voices of Ben and Skye. 

“So can you tell me why? What did I do wrong to make you do that?” Ben asked, his voice sounding pained.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Ben.”

“Then, why? Why did you do it?”

“I just… It happened in the moment.”

“Yeah,” Ben laughed, “what moment? Kissing him at the bike race? Or deciding to go down to the basement to fuck him?”

“Ben…”

“I don’t get why you’d do this, Skye,” Ben whispered, stepping closer to the girl and his voice suddenly softening, “why you’d do this to me, to yourself.”

“I’m a mess.”

“Clearly.”

“But I like you, a lot, Ben.”

“Get the drone up,” Vicki elbowed Sayid.

“You’re holding the controller.”

Vicki scoffed and began to fly the drone, keeping the distance to begin with. 

“Skye,” Ben began as he ran his hand down Skye’s arm, “I like you too, like… You’re really attractive,” he whispered, “but you hurt me.”

“I know, I’m so sorry.”

“And what am I supposed to do now?” Ben asked, “because, God, I want to be with you. But I don’t want my heart to be broken, I don’t want you to fuck me over again.”

“I don’t want to make the same mistake twice,” Skye replied to him.

“It’s not that easy.”

Skye nodded, “look,” she brushed a hand through her hair, “I’m going to make a decision, it’s going to be hard… Choosing you or Sean.”

As the pair stood close to each other, Vicki began to fly the drone towards the couple, still keeping distance.

Ben placed his hands on Skye’s waist and pulled her closer, “it’s not fair,” he whispered, “you’ve seen what he can offer,” his hands moved around to her back, “but not what I can.”

“Then… Maybe we should see.”

Ben pressed a kiss against Skye’s cheek and slowly trailed kisses down to her neck.

“Juicy,” Sayid commented as he watched the pair.

Ben’s hand slipped underneath Skye’s shirt, softly running his fingers against her back. His kisses against her neck turned to nipping, he sucked at her skin, knowing he’d leave a slight bruising, but he was sure she didn’t mind. One of his hands slowly slid down, stopping and cupping his hand around the curve of her ass. He pulled back from Skye’s neck and then pressed his lips against hers, and Skye instantly pressed back into the kiss. Pushing herself up onto her toes to make herself taller.

“Tell me you’re getting a good view to this,” Sayid whispered to Vicki.

“Yeah, no shut up, Mong!”

Skye wrapped her arms around Ben’s neck and pressed her chest against his, their kisses became rough and Skye lifted a leg as though she wanted to climb Ben’s body.

“This shit is both disgusting and fucking brilliant!” Vicki whispered as she moved the drone close to the couple.

Ben’s hands moved and he managed to lift Skye up from the ground, her legs instantly wrapping around him, Skye was lost in the kisses – as was Ben. The boy, whilst standing, moved his hips slightly, beginning to create friction between them. They broke apart from the kissing to both let out quick laughter before moving in to kiss again.

“I’m gonna be sick,” Vicki hissed as she continued to move the drone in, still undetected by the pair. 

“Can I control the drone?” Sayid asked, 

“No, you’re and idiot.”

“Let me control it!”

“Fuck off!”

“Vicki!”

“Shut the fuck up, Sayid.”

“Come on, just let me do it!”

“No!”

As the pair began to bicker, Sayid grabbed for the controller of the drone, but Vicki pulled the controller back – not wanting the boy to mess it up. Sayid’s fingers slipped over one of the analogue sticks and the pair watched in fear as the drone crashed to the ground next to Ben and Skye. The pair both broke apart from their embrace, Skye finding her footing on the ground. Sayid and Vicki were frozen in place, in view of the pair.

Ben looked at the drone and then around until he spotted the pair, instantly recognising them as crew from the show, he stepped back from Skye, “are you fucking serious?” He spat out to her, “you got the fucking camera crew involved?”

“Ben, I-”

Vicki and Sayid both slowly straightened up as the other pair argued.

“I can’t fucking believe this!” He picked up the drone and looked over to Vicki and Sayid, “and of course you two got involved,” he threw the drone to the ground in anger, “this is fucking vile,” he hissed out, “I’m done.”

“Ben, I didn’t do this!”

“Sure! Sure you fucking didn’t, just like you didn’t fuck Sean in the basement. You just want fucking drama for that stupid show! I’m done with this, I gave you a chance and you fucked up again,” he turned away and left the scene. Skye picked up the drone and looked at Vicki and Sayid, she approached the pair and dropped the drone into Sayid’s hands.

“Who sent you? Danielle? Did she want to fuck shit up for me even more?”

“Christina,” Sayid quickly answered.

“Sayid!” Vicki glared at the boy, she then turned back to Skye, “look, I only agreed to do it because she said she’d get me a dog, and Sayid wanted a hamster.”

“You ruined my opportunity to make things right just for a dog and a hamster?”

“Your opportunity to make things right?” Vicki crossed her arms and scoffed, “mate, that was just your opportunity to get your pussy wet again, definitely not ‘making things right.”

“I-”

“Babe,” Vicki leaned in, “I’m much more concerned about getting myself a dog than you getting some dick in your pussy – again. And, to be honest, it’s a little bit trashy. You need to chill out, forget about men and their dicks, in fact, try out a chick for a change! I’m always available,” she gave a quick wink.

Skye looked between the two and sighed, “I’m sorry that you two got involved.”

“I’m not,” Vicki shrugged, “as long as she still gets me that dog, we did get some footage after all.”

“I want it deleted,” Skye glared at the girl.

“But my pooch.”

“Do you know how much hate I’ll get if that’s aired? I’m already getting enough hate from the promo footage of the stair fight! I’ve had several death threats!”

“Well, you did fuck another guy,” Vicki reasoned, she turned to Sayid who was trying to fix the drone simply by holding the broken sections together and hoping they’d reform, “what the fuck are you doing?”

“Fixing it.”

“Look,” Skye held out her hands to the pair, “I’m sorry if you don’t get your dog or your hamster, but this all has to stop. This show sneaking around… What else have you guys done without telling us.”

Vicki let out a sigh, “we added a camera to the basement after the whole thing with you and Sean.”

“Yeah, we caught Kaylee and Oz making out down there, it was getting pretty heavy.”

“Next thing I know there’ll be a camera in my bedroom,” Skye hissed.

“Good idea,” Sayid gasped, Vicki quickly hit his arm.

“No, that’s it,” Skye whispered, “I’ve had enough of it,” she closed her eyes before saying her next words, “I’m cancelling the show.”


End file.
